Technology Helps You Get Drunk
Microsoft engineers have been hard at work thinking up applications for their multi-touch Surface tabletop PC. SurfaceWare is a research project to create level-sensing drinking glasses that could tell a bartender when to offer a refill.
They claim there’s a dilemma that customers can get annoyed if you offer a refill on a drink too early, and they’re less likely to order one once they’re finished the current drink. The solution comes in the form of prisms reflecting light.
Specially designed glasses will reflect infrared light emitted from Surface only when exposed to air. So once the level of booze falls below the prism tip, it reaches the “optimum” level for a refill. Surface will detect this and either change the tabletop color to alert the bartender or even offer a refill itself.
This could be a great innovation and really help businesses keep customers longer. Not to mention new customers coming in for the novelty of a robotic bartender. Though it could also mean more drunks walking stumbling through the streets in a zombie-like fashion.
[via TechRadar]
