Hideo Shimazu and the NEC System Technology Research Laboratory have developed a robot that can sample wine and tell you what kind of wine it is and what kind of food matches well with it. And it does so without opening the bottle. It just shoots some sort of laser into the bottle to analyze its chemical guts.
It can also analyze food and let you know if it's too salty or fatty. I'm not sure what the standard is for salty or fatty foods, but ok, whatever. And it can use its magic laser beam to tell you when an apple is sweet or sour. I wouldn't mind taking this wonder robot with me to the grocery store (when I happen to BE in a grocery store, that is.)
Best of all, a reporter put their hand in front of the wonder robot and it said that the reporter tastes like bacon. ha! bacon!
