Date: Thu, 25 Apr 91 17:02:25 EDT
From:: tar@medg.lcs.mit.edu (Thomas A. Russ)
To: gsl@ai.mit.edu
Subject: Digestion Seminar April 26

7.888: SEMINAR ON GASTRIC MATTER PROCESSING

Sponsors: John Pezaris, Russ Tessier, David Chanen, John Nguyen 

26 April March 1991
12:10 p.m.
NE43 - 8th Floor Playroom


			   Redde Hott Dawg

		 MIT Artificial Ingestion Laboratory


		     Ruminant Precompensation for
		 Flavor Discrimination Using Tonsils

   
                            ABSTRACT

    Typically,  flavor-discrimination algorithms have   been tested on
dishes containing either mosaics of synthetic flavors, or artificially
created mosaics of real flavors  -- in any case,  dishes in which most
of the changes in intensity can be ascribed to the flavors themselves.
However,  real  meals  aren't formed like  this, and may contain steep
gradations in  intensity which have  nothing to do  with local flavor,
such as those caused by exotic spices.

   A flavor discrimination  algorithm based on linear  tonsil  sensing
theory can fail in the presence of  strong intensity changes generated
by spices or food group  boundaries,  as  they  may easily contain  an
order of magnitude more "zip" than the  gradations in intensity due to
any flavor in the foodstuff per se.  In these cases, the mechanism may
become responsive only to strong ruminance effects, and not to flavor.
We have found that good performance on natural foods containing flavor
can only be  obtained from  a tonsils-based flavor detection scheme if
it includes a stage which attempts to  bring large intensity gradients
within bounds.  This may  be  accomplished by a preliminary  nonlinear
tonsil teasing step  involving  entirely local food preparation  (that
is, preparation  confined  to   the  immediate neighborhoods  of   the
graduate students concerned).


NOTE:  There will be a special Digestion Seminar on Friday, May 36, at
       midnight  in  the 8th Floor  Playroom.   Cliff Hanger,  of  the
       Center for Econometric Analysis at the University of California
       Sans Common  Sense,  will  speak about  ``Comparing Alternative
       Techniques    for Modeling  Nonlinear   Relationships  in  Home
       Economics.''


 Honcho: Karen Sarachik
Honchee: Tom Russ