Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Technology and Food United

Technology and restaurants have combined at the Imano Restaurant in London, as every table is essentially a computer display. These tables are not like the Microsoft Surface, but they are just as good.

As you can see, there are projectors above the tables to obtain the virtual display, and there is a circular touchpad to allow for navigation. From the moment a customer sits down, the user can then select their "placemat" like selecting a wallpaper for Windows.

From there, the customer/user can look at the menu, which includes pictures of the appetizers, main courses, even drinks. Ordering is as simple as pointing and clicking, and a wait-person will deliver your meal to you.

While the customer is waiting, he or she has the option of watching their meal prepared through a camera in the kitchen. The customer also has the option of playing a game with his or her dining partner.



*~*~*

Expedia (EXPE) today unveiled an aggressive new promotion, which it calls "Free Nights and No Fee Flights," offering to pick up the tab for one night in a hotel for stays of three, four or five days at a group of more than 700 participating hotels, and also waiving booking fees for flights booked before the end of May. The hotel promotion currently is for bookings made by April 9 for travel through May 15; the company said additional deals will be posted for bookings beginning April 9 for travel through the end of May.

*~*~*

Apple's new iPod shuffle is interesting in a number of ways. The most interesting is of course the new VoiceOver feature which communicates the name of songs and playlists through speech. But perhaps even more interesting is that there is a different voice you hear based on if you're syncing your iPod shuffle with a Mac or a PC. And, not surprisingly, the Mac voice is much better.

Apple's new iPod Shuffle now comes with 4GB of storage, enough to hold 1000 songs in 128-Kbps AAC Format, it is charged via USB and can be fully charged from flat in just 3 hours.

*~*~*

Photobucket, the most popular photo sharing site in the U.S., just announced a number of new features that will give its users easier ways to share their photos and videos across multiple web services like MySpace, Facebook, or Blogger. Photobucket also introduced a new version of its mobile site, which features a streamlined interface, as well as easier ways to access comments, ratings, and subscriptions.

The new sharing feature is powered by widget distribution network gigya.

*~*~*

A Canadian filmmaker named Rob Spence has figured out a way to remove that "I'm-on-camera" factor in his documentaries, as his prosthetic eye has a concealed camera.

Spence plans to film many people, and the eye will transmit the footage wirelessly to a storage device nearby. Of course, he is required by law to tell his interviewees that they are on camera. Oddly enough, the subject of his documentary is about whether people are "sleepwalking into an Orwellian society". I'm sure he realizes that his film could be one step into a surveillance society.

The special prosthetic eye was developed by OmniVision of Santa Clara. Spence got the idea for the camera eye by watching The Six Million Dollar Man and noticing that the tiny cameras in cellular phones could easily be put in a prosthetic eye.

So now Spence can film anything he wants without worrying about his subjects being distracted by the camera.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

  • Written by: Christy"
    • | 3:16 PM | 0 comment(s)! |