A Japanese professor has created a prototype lickable TV screen that can reportedly imitate the taste of various foods.

Dubbed Taste the TV (TTTV), the prototype was developed by Homei Miyashita, a professor at the prestigious Meiji University in Japan, as a step towards a true multisensory viewing experience. The Intriguing device uses a carousel of 10 flavor canisters that are sprayed in combination to create the taste of a particular food. The cocktail then rolls onto hygienic film over a flat TV screen, and the viewer can sample it. Miyashita believes that this technology can help people connect and interact even over long distances.

“The goal is to make it possible for people to have the experience of something like eating at a restaurant on the other side of the world, even while staying at home,” the Japanese researcher told Reuters.

As goofy as the idea of a clickable TV screen may sound, Homei Miyashita is convinced that it is part of humanity’s future. The Japanese professor envisions a world where people are able to “download” flavors they see on TV and have them recreated by the flavor canister carousel. He also hopes to create a platform where tastes from around the world can be downloaded and sampled by viewers.

Miyashita told reporters that, should his Taste-the-TV device be available commercially right now, it would probably cost around 100,000 yen ($875) to make. But even though the bizarre invention never hits the market, the concept behind it could find a home in the food business. The inventor claims that he has been in talks with companies about using his spray carousel technology for various purposes, like applying flavors to toast or pizza.

Interestingly, Homei Miyashita is the brilliant mind behind another intriguing invention we featured a while back – a smart fork capable of altering the taste of food.