Okay, so everyone is always like Japan's so technologically advanced because they make robots that look like horny 15 year old girls, but to be honest, I haven't really been blow away...until now.
So my friend from Queen's who works in Tokyo took me to a sushi place for lunch. So far so good. We sit around a center area, where the chefs make sushi and place them on trays which then circle this center area on a conveyor belt. Great. Each couple of seats has a hot water tap and some green tea powder so you can keep yourself topped up. Fine. You pick and choose which dishes you want by simply grabbing them off the conveyor belt, and each dish has a price category which is denoted by the colour and pattern of its plate. Still with me? Good. So you eat and you eat and your stack of empty plates gets higher and higher until you are so full that finally the tasty food moving slowly across your line of sight can no longer tempt you. Time to pay up! How does this work? Well it's really quite simple. Each plate has an RFID tag in it (a little microchip with data on it that can be read wirelessly) and when you ask for your check, a server just comes along with a tricorder-like device, scans your stack of plates, and BOOYAH! You have your bill. Pure Star Trek. Except the food wasn't made in a replicator. It was made by humans (or were they chef-bots?). Oh also, the food was delicious!
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Because who needs manual addition?
ReplyDeleteJust wait until the day you can pay by scanning the RFID tag implanted in your arm...
It's already pretty close...here you have a card that can be read by scanners through your wallet (you have to place your wallet on the scanner though). You can load this card up with money and use it to pay for all transit, many different shops, taxi rides and at vending machines! All they need to do now is make those scanners a little more powerful...
ReplyDeleteAnd yet I still prefer cash. RFID tags and scanners and robot sushi chefs...not a fan.
ReplyDeleteOh and to justify that robot girl comment:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbFFs4DHWys. Creepy!
*shiver*
ReplyDeleteI prefer low tech solutions. Have you checked out this place?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.weirdasianews.com/2008/10/09/japanese-monkey-waiters/
Haha no...no I have not. Kinda far out of the city, but thanks for the link hahaha. The best line in that article was this gem:
ReplyDelete"The monkey waiters have done such a good job and brought so much business to the restaurant, Mr. Otsuka admits they’re better than his real son at the job."
Must suck to be that guy's son...