Illusion cup: interactive controlling of beverage consumption based on an illusion of volume perception

This paper proposes a system and an interaction design for implicitly influencing the satisfaction we experience while drinking a beverage and for controlling beverage consumption by creating a volume perception illusion using augmented reality. Recent studies have revealed consumption of food and beverage is influenced by both its actual volume and external factors during eating/drinking. We focus on the fact that the shape of the beverage container influences beverage consumption. Based on this fact, we constructed a system that changes the apparent size of the cup. We investigated how the beverage consumption would change by using the proposed system. The results showed subjects consumed significantly greater amounts when they drank from a visually lengthened cup and consumed significantly smaller amounts when they drank from a visually shortened cup. This technique can be used for daily health-care applications with wearable computers.