Jumping for coffee

While browsing websites recently, two items in particular caught my eye. One was of an Indian researcher at MIT who has created some astonishingly-practical and useful gadgets from parts of old computers that the user literally wears. Pranav Mistry’s SixthSense technology interfaces between the digital and the real world, allowing a person to use their hands and fingers intuitively to access and control objects, to turn literally any surface, including their hand, into a monitor, a keyboard, a dialing pad; to take photos simply by framing the shot with their fingers, to scan, identify, research and project discovered the data from online or stored resources such as the internet onto a wall, a floor or a piece of paper.

The possibilities are seemingly limitless: as the inventor pointed out, the technology actually replaces conventional appliances such as desktops, laptops and cell phones and PDA’s because it can perform any function today’s computer-based technology can, such as writing, editing, processing and data storage and retrieval, without the need for a screen or a keyboard. Researchers are identifying many stunning new possibilities for improving human life on a personal and a global scale using SixthSense, including helping those with hearing and speech disabilities communicate far more effectively. This is surely one of the most exciting developments in computing science in a generation or more. Do look it up on Google to learn more about Pranav Mistry and his SixthSense technology.

The other item that caught my attention was about a new coffee machine concept devised by Douwe Egbert. The company’s concept BeMoved coffee machine employs a touch screen and a motion-sensitive camera to allow users to interface with it.

For example, you can drag and drop your choice of ingredients into a cup on screen (so far so good). Alternatively, you may be experiencing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and you may want to try the "explore" feature. Perhaps your coffee is hiding in that real tree over there…? Or maybe you are going to need to jump up and down, or dance, to persuade the machine to release your cup of coffee. Once the machine gets to know you, apparently, it is able to "read" your body to prepare and serve your "ideal" coffee – without you even needing to touch it. Gosh. No word on how often it gets it right however…

Naturally, you can also get the latest news, traffic updates, weather forecasts, stock market reports and so on while you are waiting for your brew.

Don’t look for a BeMoved coffee machine to be installed anywhere near you any time soon as the machine was developed for research only. The inventors say that "there are aspects of its design and users’ experiences that will be considered for coffee machines of the future."

I think I can help. If I want a cup of coffee, I want it fresh, now, and without having to dance for it. Look, I can understand voice commands, as in "hot hazelnut latte, two sugars, low fat milk, double shot, Colombian coffee." I get the concept of using a touch screen to drag and drop the various ingredients. But jumping up and down for it? Dancing??

Perhaps this is what you may expect to have to do to get a cup of coffee in Utrecht, where "a small team" at the Douwe Egbert research and development department has developed the machine, but here in Bangkok we prefer a somewhat more chilled approach to ordering a cup of coffee, although if you have time to start browsing news reports while waiting for the coffee to be prepared, its taking too long, and if we have to start jumping up and down to get it, something has already gone horribly and irretrievably wrong with the whole process…

Heneage Mitchell
Managing Editor/Co-publisher