Slashdot Mirror
Pizza Hut Tests New "Subconscious Menu" That Reads Your Mind
HughPickens.com writes Allison Griswold reports at Slate that Pizza Hut wants to help you order your food subconsciously with a new product that is being tested at 300 locations across the UK that uses eye-tracking technology to allow diners to order within seconds using only their eyes. The digital menu shows diners a canvas of 20 toppings and builds their pizza based on which toppings they look at longest. To try again, a diner can glance at a "restart" button. "Finally the indecisive orderer and the prolonged menu peruser can cut time and always get it right," a Pizza Hut spokesperson said in a statement, "so that the focus of dining can be on the most important part — the enjoyment of eating!" According to news release from Tobii Technology, the Subconscious Menu can determine which ingredients your mind and eyes have been looking at longest in exactly 2.5 seconds. The menu then uses a powerful mathematical algorithm to identify, from 4896 possible ingredient combinations, the customer's perfect pizza. "Tests on the Subconscious Menu have been incredibly positive with 98% of people, recommended a pizza with ingredients they love."
Sometimes I'm just reading the menu. Tracking what I look at or how long I'm looking at it isn't representative of my decision making process.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
What if you stare at the menu because you can't believe how gross X would be on a pizza?
I can't say that I've ever considered it painful, or at all problematic in the slightest degree, to select toppings for my pizza. This isn't a solution to a problem. It is, however, a gimmick that will create a problem.
I rather like the concept, if applied well. What usually happens now is an impatient server wanting you to order asap. This could be a boon to those who like to take their time ordering. No need for any human to be involved until the menu says your order is finalized.
I bet 4896 combinations should have been 4096 combinations.
In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice, they're not.
a Pizza Hut spokesperson said in a statement, "so that the focus of dining can be on the most important part — the enjoyment of eating!"
Anyone who cares about the enjoyment of eating wouldn't be in a Pizza Hut in the first place.
When I stare at the nice rack on the 20-something running the till?
My pizza came out topped with chicken breasts!
I was dubious until I read this sentence.
"The menu then uses a powerful mathematical algorithm to identify, from 4896 possible ingredient combinations, the customer's perfect pizza."
When I found out that it wasn't just any mathematical algorithm, but rather a powerful one, then I knew that this would be the ordering technology for me.
The only catch seems to be that the end result will be always be a Pizza Hut product.
Time tracking is a *bad* metric.
As someone who is trying to choose my last topping on an N-topping pizza deal, I will spend my absolutely most time trying to choose between the last two toppings, unsure of which one of the two I want more. That will push those two toppings way up on the list, inflating their supposed value to me, when in fact, they are chosen last precisely because they have less value than anything else to me.
This seems like a way to sell extra toppings for an up-charge.
Dice does not care why you read Bennet submissions. They just care that you do.
And you do.
Love him or hate him, as long as he gets clicks, Dice gets paid.
Or maybe I was looking at the fly on the menu board and wondering if I wanted to eat there, and no you can't have my retina scan without permission.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
If it's tracking by watching eye movements, I eagerly await their new Boob Flavored Pizza.
Le Telepathé
I always wanted to live to see where technology and general human advancement would take us.
Now that I know, I think I'll go off myself.
that's neat
I don't remember the last time I saw a dine-in Pizza Hut; I thought they've all converted to takeout / delivery only.
One can imagine all sorts of objections to this ("I take too long", "I like staring at onions, but I don't like eating them", etc...), however a self-reported 98% success rate -- or at least, 98% of the time they end up with a pizza with their preferred ingredients and/or that they end up really liking -- would explain why Pizza Hut decided to roll ahead with this -- seemingly weirdly ahead of its time -- tech right away.
98% approval suggests that browsing an appetite are more firmly linked. If the numbers hold up outside of the focus groups and small study areas, I'd expect this technology to spread far and wide. Carls Jr. (a/k/a Hardee's) and Jack in the Box already use the kiosks in several locations here in San Diego; a camera and tracker wouldn't be that much of a step and could provide a quite different experience.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
See above ^
captcha = incisive
As in : I just made an incisive analysis of Pizza Hut "food".
pizza hut could stick a probe into my mouth to measure which toppings produce the most salivation, and i could order my pizza that way.
the customer is an average male and the cashier is a lovely lady with a large bust.
"Tests on the Subconscious Man have been incredibly predictible with 98%..."
*stares at cheese*
is a poster of different sex positions an app on google glass and a partner to try it out on (that would be the difficult part)
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
- Based on how long you looked at items, you just ordered whole menu! ...
- Wait, what? I just had to read is slowly because I forgot my glasses
- To cancel, just look at rectangle with Cancel printed inside within next 2s
- Cancel, cancel, where the hell is it?!
- This will be $1500. Thank you for using our new subconscious menu!
And I bet it delivers something that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike pizza.
Son: Daddy, what is that disgusting looking topping on the menu. Father: Son, stop looking at it or the computer will put it on your pizza!
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
Whenever I frequent a fast food joint, I have to waste plenty of time looking at pretty pictures. I'd vastly prefer if there was a text menu, preferably with sensibly categories such as main dishes, desserts, drinks and whatnots.
Hair Pie!!!
This would be a great idea if Pizza Hut's main clientele base consisted of stroke victims who are paralyzed everywhere except for their eyes and are able to communicate only through eye movements. Last time I was in Pizza Hut, I didn't see too many such people there. So, I'm not sure what problem this technology is supposed to solve.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
At first I was offended, because apparently, if I like to peruse the menu, I'm some sort of "problem" that needs to be "fixed". But then I realized that I haven't eaten at Pizaa Hut in 12 years, mainly because of their factory approach to dining. Herd 'em in. Get the pizza down their throats as quickly as possible. Herd 'em out. Pizza Hut? More like Pizza Trough. Who cares what they do? Just one more reason to avoid the place.
Proverbs 21:19
Salesperson: congratulations on your new car purchase! (unknowing) Buyer: But I was just looking at this car!?! Salesperson: Yes, so our software determined you wanted to buy this car, so we've already signed you up for a loan!
I noticed an article by Bennett on the front page, and decided it was time to stop reading him. I'm sure I'm not the only one.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
How do I use my eyes to tell them I want sausage, EXTRA cheese, a shitload of garlic, mushrooms on ONLY HALF of the pizza, and for them to cook it "well done" (aka, properly)?
The conclusion is deceptive. They say 98% of people get ingredients they love. But that could be by chance since 98% of people probably like ANY pizza that does not contain anchovies.
"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
Yeah, well you also decided to hire someone to cut off your penis, so don't mind me if I discount your decision-making abilities and opinions.
Seriously! Is an alarm going to go off if I'm checking out the cleavage of the young lady behind the counter? I'll take my pervert money elsewhere!
No, it just adds Human Breast Milk Cheese to the toppings list.
Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon what's the difference? All steal money from devs and control with walled gardens.
What happens if I look a little longer at the waitress?
function pickPizza {
return { crust -> chewy, toppings -> [ 'pepperoni', 'extra cheese']};
}
"Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem." -- Jefferson
the customer is an average male and the cashier is a lovely lady with a large bust.
A pizza with all whole-milk cheese toppings?
"I didn't order a pizza with the tits from the cashier behind register #2?!"
I never linger over the picture of shitty tasting Pizza Hut pizza, yet that is what I receive. Every. Single. Time.
Does that mean it knows you would much rather eat somewhere else?
No sir I dont like it.
"You want..........
.
.
.
PIZZA!"
Requiem for the American Dream
“After a fairly shaky start to the day, Arthur's mind was beginning to reassemble itself from the shell-shocked fragments the previous day had left him with.
He had found a Nutri-Matic machine which had provided him with a plastic cup filled with a liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.
The way it functioned was very interesting. When the Drink button was pressed it made an instant but highly detailed examination of the subject's taste buds, a spectroscopic analysis of the subject's metabolism and then sent tiny experimental signals down the neural pathways to the taste centers of the subject's brain to see what was likely to go down well. However, no one knew quite why it did this because it invariably delivered a cupful of liquid that was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.”
Put everything on it except anchovies, and double cheese.
Come on, Slashdot! Google reports your online behavior to the NSA, Facebook alters your mood for their own fun and profit, and now Pizza Hut is trying to read your mind. It's getting harder and harder for us conspiracy deniers.
Which is ideally why you'd conduct an experiment where you have the algorithm give a certain amount of people a pizza that they are unlikely to enjoy or perhaps just something that's randomly chosen in order to see what percentage of people still say they love the pizza simply because they think the computer picked something that they would enjoy.
It's not exactly a difficult problem to overcome, but I can see why they might not care. If it makes 98% of people happy, either the algorithm is good enough for most cases or it says more about how the human mind operates more than anything else.
dicks.
The end result is from Pizza Hut, which isn't worth eating in the first place.
Congratulations, sir! We have determined by your eye movement that your number one choice for a topping on your pizza is "breasts".
So if you look to long at the melons, you get topless pizza?
I get very anxious when I am presented with a bunch of menu items, and I feel social pressure to decide quickly because I am waiting in line. This causes me to stare blankly at menu items for many seconds at a time. I suspect that this would cause this thing to build the strangest pizzas for me, and probably not at all what I want. Good thing I don't eat at Pizza Hut anymore.
But I kept getting 1/2 clip art of a girl holding a pizza, and 1/2 copyright notice.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Only if the place the pizza in my mouth, and move my jaw up and down for me. Life is so stressful as it is!
You will be banked into facial recognition database and find Peperoni ads on your Facebook ads page. This is about facial recognition software, it's going into store cameras everywhere, and they are starting to package it as a "consumer advantage". Physical browsing is now, today, being tracked the same as web browsing. Minority Report has your pizza ready.
Gently reply
Pizzas from the Id.
This.
Pizza hut's crust is awful; the thin, too thin, the thick, too thick. The cheese is devoid of all pizza-y goodness by skim and evaporation, dry and not stretchy even when still hot -- nothing like the real Mozzarella you'd find in the cheese combination that tops an honest NY pizza. They use salad mushrooms -- uncooked, raw, stiff things -- that they top the pizzas with, instead of cooked mushrooms. I mean, heck, if your palate demands salad mushrooms, fine, but they don't even offer correct pizza 'shrooms. Yes, of course that would be my favorite topping. Sheesh.
I've tried them many times over the years, and I just can't accept that what pizza hut has been producing is actually what pizza is supposed to be like. Terrible stuff. I've had better all over NY, NJ, and somewhat NE of there. Once I found good pizza in Florida, too, but as it turned out, the guy had just moved down after running a pizzeria on Broadway in Manhattan, so I'm not sure it really counts.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Success rate may not really mean much. It could also mean :
1. Toppings are in such small quantity, that too with flavour leeched out of them, that non-topping-ingredients might decide the majority of taste / satisfaction.
2. 98% say they liked their pizza after ordering this way - but maybe they would have liked any pizza? There needs to be a control group which is served the pizza that the algorithm finds least "good" for them. The very fact that they chose to order this way might mean they are not particular about which pizza they want.
At least, there needs to be a control group with random pizza ordered for them. Press release, being a press release, is short on details.
Bingo Dictionary - Pragmatist, n. A myopic idealist.
NSFW a bit https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Pizza Hut is an abomination, easily the worst pizza I have ever had.
This is every corporatio's ultimate dream.
Hey buddy, you thought you wanted it and in 0.00001 seconds we read not only your mind but that of your credit card provider and you've just been billed $34,000,000 for a piece of yesterday's sale pizza. Now pay up or we'll call the cops.
The point isn't whether Pizza Hut is good or not, nor is it whether the system works or not.
The point *is* that now Pizza Hut got everybody talking about Pizza Hut, by virtue of repackaging various black boxes, in a system that will never hit the market and doesn't have to in order to achieve its goal.
In short, some VP of Marketing at Pizza Hut is now getting to splooge all over themselves about how many nerd/geek eyeballs got attracted to this Slashdot "article," and how many watercooler and FM DeeJay moments this will produce for them.
yes... it worked...
got my pizza from Papa Johns instead...!!!
http://www.papajohns.com/
I don't know if "unlikely to enjoy" is possible, let alone scientifically reasonable. The control group should be random. It certainly is in clinical trials that evaluate placebo.
Share and enjoy!
you order your food subconsciously