Why, Japan? Why?

Yokohama National University eggheads have figured out how to make bad food taste good using augmented reality.

Humans taste not only with their mouths and noses, but also with their brains. Yokohama National University researchers have demonstrated that said brains can be tricked into perceiving that the food they’re eating is moist and delicious when in fact the food is dry and horrible.

They do this by superimposing tints, sheen and other cues onto the food in real time as the subject is eating it.

The scientists suggest that one application for their technology is to make hospital food taste better. After all, why fix the food when you can trick the eater?