Berlin's Robotic Pub

Gallamine writes: "Take a trip to Berlin, and visit the Automaten Bar to have a drink served by a robot. This members-only bar is completely automated. While this may sound rather cool, the part I find disturbing is the fact that the owner plans on webcamming the security cameras so you can check on who's at the pub. The owner also wants to make it so you can have a SMS message sent to you when a particular person's entrance card is swiped by the system. I guess the idea is that you can get an e-mail to let you know that Bob is having a drink so you can stop by and chat. While it sounds like a bunch of baloney to me, it appears to be pretty popular in Berlin, as they've already got 130 members after 2 weeks without any advertising."

Comments

video interview with one of the creators

[Kraft]

I found an interview (German) with artist Gereon Schmitz, cocreator of Automaten bar. He also has a pretty interesting website (flash).

But no pictures of the bar!

Robotics

[Maran]

So, we've got the robotic DAT changer and the robotic bar. The DAT changer was probably much more fun to engineer, but I know which wins the "post-creation fun" contest.

Maran

Re:What about the drunks?

[rm-r]

I don't know about Germans, but any Brit who is caught drink-driving recevies an automatic ban of at least one year and has to take a much harder test afterward to regain their license. Anyone who causes an accident whilst drink-driving can expect up to ten years in nick, even more if someone dies and never see their license again. There has also been a consilidated push by government to over the last ten years to real bastardify drink-drivers (you should see the TV ads we get around Christmas, they get worse each year) so that drink-driving is simply no longer socially acceptable (a few years ago it was seen as ok to 'just have a couple' or 'have one for the road')

Police are allowed to stop any when they suspect of being drunk and breathalyse them, it is an offence to refuse a sample, anyone near the limit (which works out at about 1 litre of 5% ABV beer in an average sized man) is taken to the station for a blood test (if you refuse on religious grounds you get a urine test, but they hold you longer)

I heard that the US was a lot more lax, maybe that is why it has more of a problem there- any USians care to tell us what the rules are, is it State based or Federal?

Most people over here have no sympathy for drink-drivers and I think it is this unacceptability that has driven it down more than anything else.

Re:Cams in bars...

[lordkuri]

hey all.... how about the right link

Re:State-based

[Andy Dodd]

Good point w.r.t the powers of federal government. The Feds have no influence whatsoever on drinking aged and speed limits, but it's amazing the power little green pieces of paper and their electronic brethren have... The reason the legal drinking age is 21 in *every* state in the US is not because the government passed a nationwide law, but because the government withheld highway maintenance funds from all states that didn't comply.

Penalties, etc. for drunk driving vary a lot, but they're getting much stricter very quickly these days. Laws are definately stricter in the Northeast than in the South or Southwest. Most Northeastern states (NY, NJ, PA, etc.) have "open container" laws - There are stiff penalties for even having an open container of alcohol in your vehicle, even if you're not the one drinking. (i.e. you can get heavily fined and jail time is a possibility if your passengers are drinking and you're dead sober.)

On the other hand, according to a friend that went to Rice University in Houston, "open container" laws are a completely alien concept in Texas, where a bunch of college students can sit in the back of a moving pickup (illegal in the Northeast in and of itself) and drink to their heart's content.