The Thai government is set to unveil a robotic taster that will determine if the food you have ordered anywhere in the world at a Thai restaurant is genuine or not.
The "e-delicious" machine scans food samples to produce a chemical signature which it measures against a standard deemed to be the authentic version.
The machine evaluates food by measuring its conductivity at different voltages. Readings from 10 sensors are combined to produce the chemical signature.
The machine can scientifically evaluate Thai cuisine, telling the difference between a properly prepared green curry with just the right mix of Thai basil, curry paste and fresh coconut cream and a lame imitation, New York Times reported.
"We wanted the cheapest and easiest approach to measure food. You just put in the food and you get a rating," the developer of the robotic taster Sirapat Pratontep, an expert in nanotechnology, was quoted as saying.
The Thai Delicious committee which oversaw the development of the machine, describes it as "an intelligent robot that measures smell and taste in food ingredients through sensor technology in order to measure taste like a food critic".
The government has spent around $100,000 to develop the "e-delicious" machine, the report added.