From: Amara Graps (mara@amara.com)
Date: Sat Apr 13 2002 - 07:06:49 MDT
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0404TECH-BRITAIN-GLASS-DC.html
Smart glass knows when it needs another beer
Reuters
April 04, 2002 07:46:00
LONDON - Drink up that beer - another will soon be whisked to the
table thanks to a hi-tech pint glass that tells bar staff when it
needs refilling.
Developed by a Japanese electronics company, the intelligent glass
is fitted with a radio-frequency coil in its base and emits a signal
to a receiver set in the table when it's empty, New Scientist
magazine reported Thursday.
The iGlassware system works by coating each glass with a clear,
conducting material, enabling it to measure exactly how much liquid
has been sipped or guzzled.
When empty, the glass sends an electronic cry for more beer from the
table to waiters equipped with hand-held computers on frequencies
similar to those used by mobile phones.
A team from the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories working in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, has made the first prototypes, but may
find it hard to sell the idea to Britons.
''It sounds like a fun idea, but I don't think it would work in our
pubs,'' said a spokesman for J.D. Wetherspoon, which runs over 500
pubs in Britain. ''The tradition in Britain is to get up and go to
the bar for a round of drinks, not to have a waiter bring beers to
the table, no matter how quickly,'' he said.
-- ******************************************************************** Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/ ******************************************************************** "Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." -- H. G. Wells
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