Test lab in the future's restaurant

Cameras monitor every reaction of the customers.

 In the new research center, devoted to exploring a both simple and complicated question: What makes people eat and drink the way they do? Food companies and chefs have pondered the issue for years and all manner of test kitchens and taste labs have mushroomed along with the fast food industry. Over the next 10 years, a team of more than 20 scientists, including psychologists, computer technicians and physicists, will be monitoring staff members of the university as they come for lunch each day. Close to 250 people have signed up for the project that began this month. The new lab-restaurant has prepared an impressive arsenal of hidden cameras and a substantial menu of tricks. Researchers will run tests by making small changes in the color of the lights, in accompanying sounds, in the scents or the furniture. Financing for the $4 million lab has come from the university and three private companies. Other firms have asked to join to run tests on their products.