Augmented/mixed reality technologies for food: A review

The topic of food is broad and global, thereby representing an influential sector of the economy. Motivated by the advent of Industry 4.0, massive potential exists to implement cutting-edge technologies in the food industry. Recent years have seen a growing interest towards the applications of augmented/mixed reality (AR/MR) in the food sector. An extensive search of online journals focusing on Scopus was conducted using terms including ‘augmented reality’, ‘mixed reality’ and ‘food’ in the search fields of Title, Abstract, and Keywords. Full paper reading was implemented and ineligible articles (i.e., non-English-language, review articles, not peer-reviewed and without full paper) were removed. Our systematic search resulted in 111 eligible articles, eight of which related to MR technology. There is an overall increasing trend in the number of publications appearing annually since the first relevant publication in 2010. Analysing these publications demonstrates the multidisciplinary nature of this technology which is closely linked to machine learning, computer vision, the Internet of Things (IoT), and artificial intelligence. Our findings also revealed that AR/MR technology is mainly applied in the following areas: dietary assessment, food nutrition and traceability, food sensory science, retail food chain applications, food education and learning, and precision farming. Furthermore, we highlight the limitations and analytical challenges that hinder the application of AR/MR to food-related research, such as the lack of reliable wireless connection and the difficulty in recognizing food objects in a complex environment, while also describing future research needs and directions.