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Robotic Bartender Programmed To Recognize When You Are Ready For a Drink
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Michael Harper reports that researchers at the Bielefeld University in Germany are working to develop a robotic bartender, and their most difficult challenge so far is to identify the body language that is most commonly used by customers and interpreted as someone wanting to buy a drink. A bartending robot has to be able to distinguish between customers intending to order, chatting with friends or just passing by [abstract] — and do so in a very noisy environment. The researchers examined the behavior of customers in nightclubs to see which behaviors were most successful at indicating to the barman the customer was ready to be served. 'Effectively, the customers identify themselves as ordering and non-ordering people through their behavior,' says Dr Sebastian Loth, lead author of the study. The researchers analyzed 105 attempts to order drinks at nightclubs in Bielefeld and Herford in Germany and Edinburgh in Scotland and assessed the behavior of customers 35 seconds before they were served. They found the most successful tactic, which occurred in 95% of orders, was standing squarely towards the bar with head facing forward. Looking at money saw just seven per cent of customers being served within the 35 second time frame. The findings are used to produce an update to the robotic bartender's programming to allow it to ask customers if they would like a drink when they display the right body language. What the research team has learned is being programmed into a robotic bartender called James, or Joint Action in Multimodal Embodied Systems. The researchers have been working on James since early 2011 and hope to have the project completed in January 2014."
No such a difficult problem: "Barkeep, beer me!" Do they know when you've had enough? And how well do they handle a belligerent drunk?
It is understandable that they want to automate the work of bar staff. After all they work in a very noisy, dirty and smelly environment, unsuitable for human workers.
its a very complex, very expensive high technology drinks dispenser, great job polishing a wheel lads, very shiny.
or maybe barstaff do a little bit more 'service' to the human condition than just serve drinks and wipe tables.
...is to have a bartender that knows when to shut me off.
That is unless you like to hear me sing (badly) Rolling Stones tunes.
--
BMO
If I were to order a drink from a robot, I'd follow its rules. This might be as simple as raising my glass in the air twice - whatever the new protocol is programmed to be.
When I order from a person, I want eye contact with the bartender. This won't work with a robotic bartender because it would be new and everybody would be staring at it.
Now put my name down as one of the coauthors and get on with some real science.
For the research comes from a non-existent university.
'Tis for the best, lest it drive me to drink. It would!
A female leaning over the bar to give a clear shot of her cleavage is also a sure sign.
I had an iPad with Fark up in Safari, and the fucking robot just kept handing me bottles of whiskey and beer.
What's up with that?
Finally a proper use of robotics.
Throw in some facial recognition software, set up at the door w/ your credit card, and it'll know who's tab it goes on.
The down side, it'll keep track of exactly what you drink and how much. Look forward to that information being mined by the gov't, for your own good of course, and used against you for health car costs or combined with those nice license plate readers that will scan your car on the way home and mails you a DUI ticket after the main server computes that you couldn't possibly have been sober at the time you drove home.
yay progress!
if (1) { serve_alcohol() }
Problem solved; where's my research grant?
If you want to know if someone is ready for another drink, just check whether their glass is empty. Forget body language, just go for the obvious.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
There is hope for /. after all... ...and for all mankind. Programming Skynet for Happy Hour, imagine that.
I want these guys on the Mars team. Don't tell them about the one way part, not yet. They'll all be smiling when they land, or pregnant.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
int NeedsDrink(void) { return(1); }
Great, now even more of us will be unemployed. Won't even be able to get a job tending bar, when a robot can replace us.
You think the economy is bad now, wait until unemployment is 60%. /Yes, I know I can always train for a better job and work harder, but that doesn't change the numbers. In the future there won't be jobs for most people. What will society look like at that point, with a massive unemployed underclass?
Reality has a liberal bias
It's posts like these that make me wish we had a "-2 Not even a good troll" mod.
Panting loudly, weeping a little, and croaking, "Beer...for the love of god, give me beer!" usually works.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
I mean, really, couldn't they come up with a "Artificial Intelligence Machine for Enhanced Evenings" -- AIMEE?
If it's gotta be a robot server, it dang well better be a fembot.
(now shutting down my inner sophomore...)
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
Will you be auto changed for the ones it's thinks you want even if you don't want any more beer?
You are pretty much ready for a drink when you walk into the bar.
Just hook it up to a smartphone app everybody will be served exactly what they want !!!
I can see it now. The 'Robartender' mis-reads a guys body language as wanting a drink. He's drunk so we messes with Robartender to get a drink. Then says he didn't want the drink and refuses the pay his tab.
The cops show up and have to take a police report from Robartender for theft of services.
Can't to see this...
while bar.open {
foreach customerArray | customer | do
if ((customer.emptyGlass == true) && (customer.isConscious == true)){
tender.serveDrisk( customer );
} else {
tender.hurryFinishThatDrinkIllBringAnother( customer)
}
}
"You have 10 seconds to comply."
You-want-some-more? PSSSHHHT!
It's posts like these that make me wish we had a "-2 Not even a good troll" mod.
The post you are attempting to claim was a troll was based on reality, and
anyone with any life experience knows this is true.
You're just a cunt ( literally or figuratively ) with a penchant for political correctness.
If they were robots they would be more likely to get my order right.
Any insufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.
The restaurant served alcohol to "visibly intoxicated persons" on at least three occasions, the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control said Friday in a statement. On two of those occasions, two female Tiffany's patrons were killed in separate drunk driving crashes and in the third, an intoxicated male motorcyclist was injured in a crash.
Bruno D'Uva Sr. and Bruno D'Uva Jr., both of whom own 30 percent of Tiffany's license, and Lisa Barna, who owns 40 percent, must sell their interests in the license by July 24, 2015 and pay a fine of $200,000.
After Over-Serving Patrons, Tiffany's Owners to Give Up Liquor License
Another way to lose your liquor license is by failing to card or to question the underage drinker.
The geek of course is obsessed with tech.
The bar owner is looking for a bartender who can gently push sales of the top-shelf liquor. He needs to be sociable --- he needs to be a touch theatrical.
The robot bartender as a running gag is at least as old as kinescopes of The Jackie Gleason Show of 1952. I wouldn't be in the least surprised if he made his first appearance in the silent films of 1915.
Well, then right after morning coffee I can expect to be pestered by this bartending robot.
Beep.. "Time for your drink, and cannabis is recommended.., sir" ...beep.
Doesn't sound healthy to me.
Putting an industrial robot, normally located in a security cage, to serve drunks.
Two telltale signs human bartenders keep ignoring:
1. I don't have a glass.
2. My glass is empty.
Both are 100% sure indicators that I need a drink right the fuck now.
As long as the robot follows the three laws of robotics the robot serving drinks is just fine.
Should they create new version of "Cocktail" with robots and excessive amounts of CGI?
Do you want some more?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFAPW3W2yMk&feature=player_detailpage#t=116
Because that's what happens when I go to a bar. I stand squarely at the bar, look straight at the bartender, then watch as they serve one attractive female after another, all of whom arrived at the bar after I did. It's not just male bartenders trying to get laid, either. Happens with female bartenders as well. I understand that they need to keep the females happy, because that's what gets the males into the bar to spend money, but a person can only take so much of being shat on. I am acutely aware that I have a moderate-to-severe case of Resting Asshole Face, so I make every attempt to smile and employ happy expressions and body language to mitigate this, but finally I have realized that nothing I say or do will stop people from treating me like dirt, especially people in bars. So I have come to loathe the bar culture and view it as a colossal waste of time, money and liver function. I have never been welcomed into their little club, and if all the bars burnt down tomorrow, with every last desperate, pathetic bar rat locked inside, I would not lose a second of sleep. Sour grapes doesn't even begin to describe how I feel. The only robotic bartender I would be interested in would be one fitted with 20mm vulcan cannons that I could control remotely from a secure, untraceable location.
Why not just put a button on each table that says "Bring Drinks". It would cost 1/10th as much.
Table-ized A.I.
Seriously no need to over complicate.
Next up: "-5 Trying to game the mod system".
Yes, it's true that men are pigs. Denial and wishful thinking won't change that.
You just keep telling yourself that, honey, all the way to your
cozy room in the old folks' home.
It's posts like these that make me wish we had a "-2 Not even a good troll" mod.
The post you are attempting to claim was a troll was based on reality, and
anyone with any life experience knows this is true.
You're just a cunt ( literally or figuratively ) with a penchant for political correctness.
Really, so the bartenders can completely ignore customers and expect to stay employed? You probably go to some seriously douchy clubs. I go to places that have customer service. (And girls only need to show cleavage to get free drinks.)
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
"Welcome to the Hotel California"
I am the unwilling control for my Origin.
How about they hire competent bartenders that attend to their customers? I am all for technology for technology's sake, but when it comes to this I do not see how it is anything more than a stunt.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Men are Homo sapiens, of the genus Homo. Pigs are animals of the genus Sus. Therefore men are definitely not pigs.
(And girls only need to show cleavage to get free drinks.)
Yes. Unless they're fat. Then no one cares except black men and pasty D&D playing white guys. They get customer service from the business but they're paying for it themselves. Because they're fat chicks. You see, that's what we were talking about. Do try to keep up, won't you?
Thanks for proving my point.
They should name it, THE BENDER!!!!
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)