This article is more than 1 year old

Japan's Robo-Bartenders point to a golden future

Tired travellers floored by perfectly poured pints

Not content with wowing the world with the posterior polishing wizardry of their electronic toilet seats, the Japanese have turned their attention to that other first world problem: pouring of the perfect pint.

In the past, thirsty customers have had to rely on the vagaries of the human/beer interface (more commonly known as the bartender.) All too often the human effect can result in an excess of foam or spillage of the precious, precious golden fluid, or the dreaded beer arm.

Travellers stopping into the Sakura Lounge at Tokyo's Narita airport can, however, take a glimpse into a future where an imperfect pint is a thing of the past. Complete with a plastic mock-up to assist those unsure as to what a glass of beer looks like, the robot bartender stands ready to dispense at the push of a button.

Youtube Video

Admittedly, some fleshy interaction is still required. The customer must retrieve a glass from a nearby chiller, push a button adorned with a helpful picture of the desired beer, and then stand back while robo-beer does its stuff.

First, the glass is tilted to the perfect angle for the initial pour. At the midway point the angle of pouring changes to avoid an over-froth scenario. Finally, the glass returns to vertical and a last squirt of foam ensures the perfect head*.

Your correspondent repeated the process a number of times (purely in the interests of science) and can confirm that every beer was perfect. If this is indeed the future, then El Reg welcomes our robotic beer pouring overlords.

* Not everyone at The Reg agreed with the size of head offered up by the robo beer pourers. We'll leave it to our readers to thrash this out in our digi dungeon, AKA, the comments section. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like