L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), (EFE).- The Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation (MWCapital) and El Celler de Can Roca have presented this Tuesday a ‘phygital’ chocolate tasting, which combines real tasting with a virtual experience immersive and interactive that aims to emphasize the flavors.
This year’s MWCapital proposal has been to explore the ‘phygital’ world, which combines technology with the five senses with the aim of creating experiences that bring people closer to the metaverse.
The executive director of MWCapital, Francesc Fajula, has assured that the objective of this year “has been to move away from the theory of technology and explore the use cases that new technologies can have”.
For this reason, within the framework of the Mobile World Congress held in Barcelona, the foundation, together with El Celler de Can Roca and Futura Space, have created the taste station, in which the user can try three chocolates made by Jordi Roca wearing immersive reality glasses that accompany the taste of sweets with a virtual experience that, in Roca’s words, “emphasizes the flavours”.
“Play with technology”
The pastry chef of El Celler de Can Roca, Jordi Roca, has assured that “we have enjoyed having been invited to play with technology, since for years we have wanted to explore the option of combining visual inputs with flavour”.
The taste station is preceded by the smell station, in which they offer the user a route through Barcelona in the digital world, through a tour that is close to a video game and gives the opportunity to smell emblematic places in the city.
Through the responses of the smells that the user prefers, at the taste station they will offer one of the three flavors, which are sweet, based on a caramel ganache; acid, which contains a lime and passion fruit ganache; or spicy, with red pepper and chili.
virtual experience
The virtual experience has been created by Futura Space, a creative studio specialized in immersive XR technologies, which together with the Master Chocolatier and head of the Casa Cacao workshop, Damian Allsop, have designed what can be viewed from the immersive glasses that come with the different stages of the savoring process.
“We want the experience to not only serve to enjoy the chocolates, but also to have an educational part so that the user can learn how we experience the flavors”, explained Allsop.
The director of Intelligent Connectivity at MWCapital, Eduard Martín, has assured that “our objective in designing this experience was to convey that savoring is a dream trip, which can be emphasized when interacting with the rest of the senses.”