During her 3-year tenure as Prime Minister of Thailand until a coup d'état overthrew her government last May, Yingluck Shinawatra complained of being served bad Thai food when she traveled; as a response, Shinawatra put her money where her mouth was and sponsored the creation of Thai food robots that will see if a meal is really Thai food!
The Thai food robots (two in total) are actually owned by the Thailand government, which just unveiled them recently. These Thai food robots are able to evaluate the quality of a meal according to government-standardized recipes, and they were made as an effort from the Thailand state to promote its country's already famous cooking - only now, it'll be "proper" Thai meals.
These Thai food robots were made by the country's National Innovation Agency (NIA), which was tasked by the Ministry of Science and Technology, according to ABC News. The way these machines work is through an electronic nose, which is made with 16 gas sensors and an electronic tongue that can detect the flavors of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami (which is to say, meat or savory).
The two Thai food robots are called e-Delicious and ESenS, and they're actually run with a smart application of Android (which is about the size of a printer), which uses micro-sensors to compare foods to existing recipes, all of which are government approved - there is actually something called the "Thai Delicious Committee" in the Asian country's government. In any case, this could potentially also mean the standardization of Thai food across the globe!
The two Thai food robots were developed in a year, and the NIA is hoping to create at least up to 100 of them. For now, there are 11 approved recipes for the robots tot try out, including: Tom Yum Kung, Pad Thai, Mussaman Curry and Golek Chicken Sauce. In the meantime, NIA is working on standardizing 10 more recipes - and the agency also created an iOS app called "Thai Delicious" which features recipes for download.
