Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories has created a wirelessly-enabled glass that can automatically notify bartenders and other servers when you need a refill.
"Each glass contains a microchip that derives power from a radio-frequency coil inside the base. The glass is coated with a conducting material that enables it to serve as a capacitor, which monitors changes in the level of liquid it holds...The microchip not only continually reads the change in capacitance and uses the embedded coil to notify when the customer needs a refill, it also contains a code that identifies a specific glass and the table where it is being used. Information from the smart glass can be sent to a handheld device carried by the server, for instance, or to a receiver behind the bar."
April 08, 2002 (tech,gadgets)
Mitsubishi's Wireless Glass
Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories has created a wirelessly-enabled glass that can automatically notify bartenders and other servers when you need a refill.
"Each glass contains a microchip that derives power from a radio-frequency coil inside the base. The glass is coated with a conducting material that enables it to serve as a capacitor, which monitors changes in the level of liquid it holds...The microchip not only continually reads the change in capacitance and uses the embedded coil to notify when the customer needs a refill, it also contains a code that identifies a specific glass and the table where it is being used. Information from the smart glass can be sent to a handheld device carried by the server, for instance, or to a receiver behind the bar."