Your Next Cocktail Could Be Concocted By This Robotic Bartender The Monsieur is kind of like a Keurig for alcoholic beverages. But even cooler.
By Jason Fell
What if you were at a company party and, from across the room, you could open a mobile app, select a drink and have a machine concoct it for you? It's possible, thanks to the founders of Monsieur, a device that takes the art form of bartending and makes it a science.
Monsieur was unveiled at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco last week. According to its website, it's a device that's able to create 300 different cocktails from 12 themes (tiki bar, anyone?). Monsieur says it can make up to 150 beverages without needing a refill.
"The internal brain is a microcontroller that orchestrates thermoelectric coolers, peristaltic pumps, sensors, and other mechanical components to deliver precision mixology," the website says.
It's kind of like a Keurig for alcoholic beverages. But even cooler. Party goers can read detailed drink descriptions and place an order instantly over Monsieur's mobile app. The device is able to learn a customer's tastes based on his or her orders and then make suggestions based on the person's preferences.
Also pretty cool is a feature on the app that can monitor your drink consumption and send you an alert when your estimated blood alcohol level is high. It says it can even help you find a cab if you've had one too many to safely get behind the wheel.
For businesses that use Monsieur, it monitors in real-time how much and what types of ingredients people are consuming. That gives business owners detailed insight into what liquors are selling and which aren't. It also knows how much in sales the device rings up during an event.
Of course, there are other automated bartenders, such as the Makr Shakr from MIT's Senseable City Lab. But unlike Makr Shakr's clearly robotic-looking arms and gears, the Monsieur looks at home at a bar or party and packs a lot of handy features into one device.
The idea for Monsieur was first hatched at Georgia Tech. It is the brainchild of Barry Givens, who has a degree in mechanical engineering, and Eric Williams, who has a Master's in computer science. So far, the men have deployed units at restaurants and bars in Atlanta and are working on partnerships with drink brands and sports arenas, TechCrunch reported. To buy one, a business would need to pony up a one-time $995 installation fee and a monthly $295 maintenance fee.
Only question, what if you take your drink shaken, not stirred?
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