Ultrasonic Cuisine: Proposal of Ultrasonic Non-contactStirring Methods

Yuta SatoUniversity of Tsukubas.yutassie@gmail.com

Kensuke AbeUniversity of Tsukuba

Kotaro OmomoUniversity of Tsukuba

Ryota KawamuraUniversity of Tsukuba

Kazuki TakazawaUniversity of Tsukuba

Yoichi OchiaiUniversity of Tsukuba

Figure 1. Left:The acoustic radiation force generated at the focal pointof the ultrasonic phased array can stir the liquid. Right:We believe thatour study will extend kinds of usage scenes of ultrasonic phased arraysand make them familiar to our lives.

ABSTRACTIn this paper we propose a method of non-contact stirring.Ultrasonic waves have been studied for various applications.However, devices using ultrasound have been devised only tospecialize in one role up to now. In recent years, we aim atgeneralization of aerial ultrasonic equipment used for variousapplications such as tactile presentation and super directionalspeaker, and propose applications closely our real life.

Author KeywordsUltrasonic; Ultrasound; stirring

ACM Classification KeywordsJ.4. SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES (e.g. HCI):Miscellaneous

INTRODUCTIONUltrasonic waves have been studied for various applicationssuch as washing, cutting, degassing, atomization of moisture,and component extraction. Since speakers and tools using ul-trasonic waves have appeared, they are gradually becomingfamiliar to us. In this study, we generate ultrasonic waves inthe air using ultrasonic arrays and consider the non-contact

This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Notfor redistribution.UIST 2017, October 22–25, 2017, Quebec City, QC, Canada.Copyright c© 2017 Association for Computing Machinery.ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-4981-9/17/10$15.00https://doi.org/10.1145/3131785.3131801

stirring method of liquid. Harada et al. [1] clarify that it ispossible to swell dry matter without missing umami by uti-lizing ultrasonic waves, and demonstrate that ultrasonic irra-diation is useful for food processing. Katou et al. [3] pro-posed the method to stir liquids in a vessel without contactby using a radiation pressure of ultrasound waves. In ad-dition to these studies, ultrasound cooking utensils includeUP200Ht - Handheld Ultrasonic Homogenizer (hielcher ul-trasonics gmbh), and so on. These are the devices that makeit possible to emulsify and ripen liquid by ultrasonic vibra-tion. In UP200Ht - Handheld Ultrasonic Homogenizer, thetransducer and metal are brought into tight contact, and theliquid is ultrasonically vibrated by placing them in it directly.In this products, the medium is used between the transducerand liquid so that the air is not caught.

Uragami et al. [5] conducted experiments to irradiate ultra-sonic waves from the outside of the container against waterin the internal vessel of 4 x 5 x 30 mm small vessel. Ochiaiet al. [4] also conducted the research on tactile presentationin the air with powerful aerial ultrasound waves. In our lives,it is very rare for us to put the liquid in such a container withsmall volumes and stir it, or require tactile presentation by ul-trasound waves. Therefore, in this study, we try to stir a cupof liquid in order to consider how to utilize ultrasonic waveseffectively at home using ultrasonic arrays.

METHODHoshi et al. [2] fabricate the prototype consisting of 285 air-borne ultrasound transducers and produce a stress field in a3D space by controlling ultrasonic waves with the device.It enables a tactile display that provides unrestricted hapticfeedback in air without any mechanical contact. The ultra-sonic phased array creates a spherical synthetic wave by ar-ranging ultrasonic speakers in an array and oscillating ultra-sonic waves while shifting the phase from each array. Thisallows the focal point of the ultrasonic wave to be freely con-trolled. The generated force at the array’s focal point is up to16 mN.

In order to agitate the surface of the liquid without contactby utilizing the acoustic radiation force generated by soundreflection, we gradually injected the liquid while irradiat-ing its surface with the focal point of the ultrasonic phasedarray. The acoustic radiation force is generated by pres-sure differences between mediums by the reflection of sound

Water AlcoholFocal point

Splash of liquid

↑↑↑↑↑↑

Experiment

B C DA

Figure 2. A: Experimental environment. B: Experimental scene comparing splashed height of each liquid by ultrasonic waves. C: In the case of redcolored water. D: In the case of red colored alcohol.

Focal point

Figure 3. By amplifying the scent when you drink or eat some foods, youcan enrich your own experience about eating and drinking.

waves. Since acoustic waves have a property of totally re-flecting at boundary surfaces between mediums with acousticimpedance largely different from each other, so they reflectat the boundary surface between the air and water (the ratioof these acoustic impedance is 0.0004:1.5) and acoustic radi-ation pressure is generated. This creates waves on the surfaceof the liquid and allows for agitation of the liquid. It is alsopossible to scatter the flavor of the dish or impregnate themeat with a sauce by raising the power of the array to ripplethe liquid surface and scatter droplets.

In the experiment, we placed an array on a table using anacrylic plate and irradiated with ultrasonic waves obliquelyto the liquid surface, so we made a spiral flow and stirred theliquid by shifting the focus from the center. Figure 2 showsa photograph comparing the splashed height in the case ofwater and alcohol. The difference between specific weightsof the liquids makes a difference in the splashed height.

FUTURE WORK

Spread flavor with mouthFoods and drinks such as a truffle and wine can enrich thetaste by there flavors. As we could observe the phenomenonthat the flavor was diffused to the surroundings by applyingultrasonic waves, we will establish this ground and proposeapplication that we can enjoy everyday meal more by ultra-sonic device. Figure 3 is an image of flavor diffusion.

Infiltrate seasonings into ingredientsBy irradiating with ultrasonic waves, the effects of ”cavita-tion pressure”, ”deaeration action”, ”promotion of capillaryphenomenon by material vibration” work to promote season-ing infiltration into foods. It usually takes time to infiltrateseasonings into foods, but degradation of foods progresses

with time. In this study, it can be minimized by inflicting sea-sonings into foods at high speed by the action of ultrasonicwaves.

CONCLUSIONIn this study, we proposed new applications about an ultra-sonic device which had only been recognized as a super-directional speaker, as cooking tools to help everyday cook-ing and amusements to amplify the pleasure of meals. Re-garding the stirring of the liquid, its ingredients are scatteredwhen strong ultrasonic waves are applied to it which has alight specific weight like alcohol. To the contrary, if ultra-sonic waves are weak, the liquid cannot be sufficiently stirred.In addition, it is necessary to stimulate the boundary surfaceof the liquid separated vertically due to the difference in spe-cific weight for stirring, but there is a problem to stir onlythe surface. When alcohol was stirred, it was scattered, soit was easy to reproduce the taste like that after shaking theliquid.By considering the specific gravity of the liquid, it ispossible to stir thoroughly by injecting liquid while irradiat-ing ultrasonic waves.

REFERENCES1. Harada, S., and Itsumi, A. A basic study of cooking

utilizing ultra-sonic waves : Hydration and extraction ofdry ingredients. Bulletin of Toyama Collage 41 (2006),39–45.

2. Hoshi, T., Takahashi, M., Iwamoto, T., and Shinoda, H.Noncontact tactile display based on radiation pressure ofairborne ultrasound. IEEE Transactions on Haptics 3, 3(July 2010), 155–165.

3. KATOU, H., MIYAKE, R., and TERAYAMA, T.Non-contact micro-liquid mixing method usingultrasound. JSME International Journal Series B Fluidsand Thermal Engineering 48, 2 (2005), 350–355.

4. Ochiai, Y., Kumagai, K., Hoshi, T., Hasegawa, S., andHayasaki, Y. Cross-field aerial haptics: Rendering hapticfeedback in air with light and acoustic fields. InProceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on HumanFactors in Computing Systems, CHI ’16, ACM (NewYork, NY, USA, 2016), 3238–3247.

5. Uragami, T., Osumi, A., and Ito, Y. Behavior of liquid ina vessel irradiated by high-intensity aerial ultrasonicwaves. Proceedings of Symposium on UltrasonicElectronics 36 (2015).