Is your glass half empty or full? Microsoft’s Surface can tell
Multi-touch computing stand aside, behold: multi-cocktail interfaces! The clever people at Microsoft’s Applied Sciences group devised a cute hack to let their Surface table detect how full your beverage is using a simple principle of optical refraction: the presence of a liquid (such as water or your martini) changes the amount light bends as it passes through your glass into the surrounding air. To take advantage of this change of index of refraction, the researchers built special cocktail glasses with slightly peculiar conical protrusions inside that offer the proper angles to allow infrared light from the Surface’s IR camera to be reflected back at the camera proportionally to the amount of drink you have left to enjoy. (We noted that by taking up volume in your glass, this conical protrusions offer the additional “benefit” of making your drink look fuller than it actually is –)
We won’t comment on possible long term uses of such technology, but the video mentions using it to inform waitstaff of more opportune times to come offer you another drink. We just hope the “wait staff” comes in the shape of an anthropomorphized office contrivance that appears out of nowhere and asks “It looks like you’re getting tipsy. Want some help?”
(We were also impressed by the virtual bubbles that flow around your glass that you can play with and pop, rivaling the unparalled gratification of popping virtual bubble wrap.)
- emax