Posted on 01/28/2006 1:15:51 PM PST by billorites
Japanese beer maker Asahi plans to give away 5000 personal bartending bots, each of which can store up to six cans of beer in a refrigerated compartment within its belly. At the push of a button the simple robots will open a can and pour the chilled contents into a glass for a thirsty owner.
To win one of the beer-bots, in a promotion for the company's new low malt beer, contestants must collect 36 tokens found on the specially marked beers. But the competition, starting in February, is only open to those in Japan.
Some robotics experts see the promotion as a fun way to promote a wider interest in robotics. Others, however, say it is a gimmick that distracts from genuine robot research.
"I'm not sure about bar-tending, but for home robots I think there is a big market," says Gaurav Sukhatme, a robotics expert at the University of Southern California, US.
Sukhatme believes the robot should help broaden public enthusiasm for robotics. "Companies will often build things like this for advertising but I don't think it's a distraction [from academic research]."
"I think the sector of home robots in general is about to boom," adds Magnus Wurzer, who organised an event featuring cocktail-making robots in Vienna, Austria in November 2005. "At the moment the home products called robots are but toys, but this will change, features will be added, production will get cheaper."
But Ronald Arkin of Georgia Institute of Technology, US, says the new contraption is a poor advertisement for home robots - which can be more sophisticated. "Home robots are already present," he told New Scientist. "Roomba and Aibo are two good examples - the former for cleaning, the latter for entertainment."
Arkin adds that the beer bot does nothing sophisticated by current research standards and is "just an example of what people can do with robots to gather attention towards a product."
He does, however, see one potential benefit for the company. "It may be cheaper than a Hollywood star," he notes.
As has been said upthread, "what tattoo"?
Darn tootin.
As has been said upthread,
You two are in HeapBigTrouble!!!!!!
(Yawn)
Just six? What good is that? Ping me when the technology reaches this century. ;-)
"Hurry UP Japan! We have MONEY AND ARE WAITING!!!!"
LOL, AGREED!
That's the one I was looking for and got stuck on the other. :)
What?...It doesn't have a flat head !
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