I came across something rather interesting the other
day. Well, interesting to me, and you know how easily amused I am.
I always ask for water when I go to a self-service
coffee shop. And usually that means they give you a cup and you get it yourself
from the soda machine. Typically, that would look like this one, at the Panera
Bread in Sunnyvale:
I’d consider this a mechanical version—the dispensing
of the various types of beverages is managed by pushing a mechanism.
But a couple of weeks ago I went to Le Boulanger in
Mountain View—which they’d obviously revamped since the last time I was there
months and months ago. And I found a state-of-the-art electronic self-serve
machine:
The only mechanical element is pushing your
container against the lever to get ice. For the beverage you use the
touch-screen to make your choice and hold until you’ve got enough. Here’s a
close-up of the panel:
Twenty-two options, compared to the eight of the
old-style machine.
I’m kind of curious how it works behind the shiny
screen—I suppose no differently, really, from the mechanical version. The
ability to have nearly three times the choices is probably a function not of
how it’s mixed on the back end, but of how many spigots you can put on the user
side.
Certainly looks cooler, too.
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