It’s widely known that our sense of smell is closely linked to our sense of taste. That’s why kids plug their noses when they eat something they don’t like, and why you can’t taste anything when you have a bad head cold. But tricking the sense of taste can work the other way, as well: smell something pleasant while you’re eating something tasty, and the experience is greatly enhanced.

The Aromafork from Molecule-R plays on the fact that our taste buds can only recognize five basic tastes: sour, sweet, salty, bitter, and umami (or savory). The rest of our food’s taste comes from aromas hitting the back of the palate. The Aromafork has a small, removable paper membrane just behind the tines. Adding a few drops of liquid aroma to the membrane will cause your brain to “taste” your chosen aroma along with the food you are eating.

Molecule-R’s Aroma R-Evolution set comes with 21 liquid aromas: chocolate, coffee, vanilla, banana, lychee, passion fruit, strawberry, basil, cilantro, mint, almond, coconut, peanut, black pepper, cinnamon, ginger, wasabi, butter, olive oil, smoke, and truffle. You can eat your cheesecake with the aroma of chocolate hitting your palate, or go a little nuts and eat your salad while tasting cinnamon.

As you eat, the liquid aromas waft up and through your sinuses, translating into the illusion of taste. If you can learn to ignore food textures, you might be able to eat healthy foods while tricking your brain into believing that you’re eating a decadent treat. For $59 (US) you can get four forks, 21 aromas, 50 diffusing papers, four droppers, and instructions on creating your very own multi-sensory eating experience.

The post Inhale Your Food: Scent-Emitting Fork Fools the Taste Buds first appeared on Gajitz.

Ever smash whatever it is you’re trying to plug in because it won’t fit in the socket’s very small outlet radius? Probably not, because you’re not a gorilla. But we as humans do love convenience. 360 Electrical has a creative solution for the above scenario.

Outlet specialists 360 Electrical have a wide variety of products for your electricity-consuming needs. Their specialty is putting 360 degree-rotating outlets into all of their adapters, outlets and surge protectors. They’re not exactly developing microchips, but they are preemptively eliminating outlet rage.

All of the rotating outlets can turn a full 360 degrees without ever losing power, meaning that if you have something plugged in but then need to plug a giant adapter in, you can move both around until they both fit perfectly.

The post Rotating Sockets Power All of Your Gadgets From Any Angle first appeared on Gajitz.

Soon the crunch of a cricket between your teeth will be as unmistakable as that of a potato chip. If this thought churns your stomach, consider the ever-snowballing global food crisis. The Lepsis hopes to reduce this problem.

The Lepsis is a terrarium that breeds edible insects right in your own home. It contains everything needed to process grasshoppers, from growing to preparing them for edibility. Designer Mansour Ourasanah developed the Lepsis with the help of KitchenAid. Insects make an excellent food source thanks to their protein content and the fact that they reproduce quickly and in great numbers, and there is a seemingly infinite variety of them.

Ourasanah took notice of a recent UN report that recommends the consumption of insects on a more global scale. Regional and international stigmas exist regarding the consumption of insects as a source of protein, even though 80% of the world already does so. Ourasanah hopes introducing the Lepsis to urban environments will help break these stigmas. “In order to move toward a sustainable future, we must do away with our culinary hangups and redefine the paradigm of food,” he says.

The post Can This Home Grasshopper Grower Ease Food Shortages? first appeared on Gajitz.

Home air purifiers, with their irritating, incessant hum and tiny lifespan, don’t serve much more of a purpose than your central air system’s intake vent. They also tend to be a bit of an eyesore. The Andrea Air Purifier, however, wants to split the difference between form and function.

Utilizing the natural air purification power of plants, the Andrea encloses a plant in what looks like a giant pill capsule with a built-in fan. The fan efficiently moves air through the plant’s leaves, soil and roots, exiting the apparatus through a tray of water meant to collect toxins. Co-inventor Tom Hadfield claims Andrea is 1000% more effective at air purifying than a houseplant alone.

Andrea works with a wide variety of houseplants. With its sleek design, it hopes to end the cycle of air purifier disposal. “Today people buy air purifiers and then they go out and they buy a vase,” Tom Hadfield said in an Inhabitat.com interview. “We think the future of indoor air purification might be somewhere in between those two.”

The post Eco-friendly Air Purifier Want to Plant Itself in Your Home first appeared on Gajitz.

Vacuuming is a necessary household chore, but it can hardly be described as fun – unless you have one of these impressive vacuums, that is. These three vacuum cleaner concepts are cool enough to make cleaning the carpets a little more fun.

The Rideable Vacuum Cleaner concept from designer Kristina Andersson is a cute little canister vacuum that looks like a super-sized bug. Kids can sit on the back of the vacuum as it goes about its duties, letting them participate in cleaning the house. It might not be a huge contribution, but it might just help them to realize at a young age that they can have an impact on keeping the house clean.

Dave Hakkens‘ Dustball Robot Vacuum Cleaner concept takes a page from the book of existing robotic vacuums, but puts a new spin on the idea. The ball-shaped cleaner rolls around the floor, blowing air out to stir up dust and sucking it up into its hidden canister. When the canister is full, the vacuum just returns to its dock and begins to glow. While the concept is definitely intriguing, the ball shape doesn’t seem to be the most sensible for a gadget that is expected to clean in small and out-of-the-way places like corners and under sofas.

Finding a decent storage place for a vacuum cleaner is a frustrating practice when you live in a small space. The Vacu-Broom is a student project from industrial designer Vinay Raj Somashekar that addresses this annoying problem. The small cylindrical vacuum is used as a hand-held cleaner for small messes. A telescoping handle stores in the side of the cylinder, and when you want to use the vacuum for cleaning floors you simply remove it, extend it and insert it into the gadget’s main body.

The post These Gadgets Suck: 3 Next-Gen Vacuum Cleaner Concepts first appeared on Gajitz.