Monday, April 8, 2002
Wireless Devices For Bartenders?
Posted by Brad Adrian in "NEWS" @ 08:08 AM
http://www.wirelessnewsfactor.com/perl/story/17133.html
Okay, here's an application of wireless technology and PDAs that even I hadn't considered. WirelessNewsFactor has a story about how Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories has created a wirelessly-enabled glass that can automatically notify bartenders and other servers when you need a refill.
"Each glass contains a microchip that derives power from a radio-frequency coil inside the base. The glass is coated with a conducting material that enables it to serve as a capacitor, which monitors changes in the level of liquid it holds...The microchip not only continually reads the change in capacitance and uses the embedded coil to notify when the customer needs a refill, it also contains a code that identifies a specific glass and the table where it is being used. Information from the smart glass can be sent to a handheld device carried by the server, for instance, or to a receiver behind the bar."
I'm not sure how rapidly this might be embraced, but if they could just add a tilt sensor that automatically tells a waiter when my child knocks her glass of milk over, they just might have something!
Okay, here's an application of wireless technology and PDAs that even I hadn't considered. WirelessNewsFactor has a story about how Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories has created a wirelessly-enabled glass that can automatically notify bartenders and other servers when you need a refill.
"Each glass contains a microchip that derives power from a radio-frequency coil inside the base. The glass is coated with a conducting material that enables it to serve as a capacitor, which monitors changes in the level of liquid it holds...The microchip not only continually reads the change in capacitance and uses the embedded coil to notify when the customer needs a refill, it also contains a code that identifies a specific glass and the table where it is being used. Information from the smart glass can be sent to a handheld device carried by the server, for instance, or to a receiver behind the bar."
I'm not sure how rapidly this might be embraced, but if they could just add a tilt sensor that automatically tells a waiter when my child knocks her glass of milk over, they just might have something!
