What could possibly go wrong?
...ummm.....
IBM has filed a patent for mood-sensing coffee delivery drones, because what the world really needs is piping hot liquids flying around over everyone's noggins. Big Blue's plans for aerial hot beverage deliveries not only include deliveries of pre-ordered brews but also taxi-style flagging down of aerial drinks. The US Patent …
>IBM now have a patent on the idea
You can't patent ideas...
Whilst I agree the chances of anyone actually trying to sell this as a product is small, I expect others will implement the non-patent and then submit their own variation patent eg. "Drone delivery of donut (or other bun) based on a cognitive state of an individual"... However, I doubt we will see "Drone delivery of prize monies based on a cognitive state of an individual"
>Swap Coffee for Beer and this could work wonders
On reading the abstract: "The analysis can include profile data of people, including electronic calendar data, which can be used to determine a potentially predetermined cognitive state." my thoughts were: Must be time for a G&T...
It's like Talkie Toaster, only with scalding hot beverages and the ability to throw them in your face whether you want coffee or not.
Now that I put it like that, it sounds disturbingly reminiscent of some "AI"-driven small drone weapon being developed by the usual amoral Silicon Valley scum for the US government. Which unfortunately is where it's more likely such technology would *actually* be deployed.
Now that I put it like that, it sounds disturbingly reminiscent of some "AI"-driven small drone weapon being developed by the usual amoral Silicon Valley scum for the US government. Which unfortunately is where it's more likely such technology would *actually* be deployed.
So then: "Hi there. You look like a bad person. Here's live grenade with the pin pulled."????
"What batteries will these things have? I fly RC planes and helis and last I checked, heating stuff uses a ton of enegy!"
From the patent drawings, it goes off to a coffee maker and collects one then delivers it. It doesn't actually make the coffee for you right there and then.
Not to mention the flavor preferences: some for the "dark" variety, some for the "citrus".
I prefer the latter, despite the BVO risk. (I do stay away from the strikingly orange ones.)
Same argument goes for coffee: sugar? creamer? non-dairy creamer? flavor shots? Will this only deliver strong and black? This is why our office has a Keurig instead of a communal pot: no two people can agree.
> "brings to mind the creepy servo-skulls of the Warhammer 40K universe"
Flying machine skulls... that's bloody brilliant! It looks like someone built a game based on stuff ripped off from heavy metal album artwork. The sort of things included because (e.g.) Butt-Head would think they were "*cool*!" rather than because they make any sense.
I'd buy that for a dollar!
Secret military programme to develop autonomous tear gas dispensing drones gets canned, IBM being out of pocket tell the development team to find a civilian use case.
Or it may just be an IBM DE/Master Inventor spinning a yarn just to have a batch of prototypes shuttling between his office and the nearest decent coffee shop at company expense..
Talky the Toaster from Red Dwarf - Does Anybody want any toast ?
I wonder how they will make fresh coffee at the point of dispensing, since as far as I know, it takes a big machine to make nice coffee, then what about all the add-on's that go into coffee these days, funny flavours, toppings and non-cow origin alternatives to milk.
Um, no. I don't drink coffee. Ever. Not interested.
I respond quite politely when offered, but the answer is always no thank you.
And forgive if someone "of high status" having something I don't does not make my brain go into dumb mode and want the same thing.
Its amusing to see how many times PHBs fail to understand many if not most people will do what they want regardless of what someone else is doing most of the time. There are only a few social events where following the leader is necessary to a degree; but coffee?
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... with the likes of Amazon actively working on it,... but this patent means Amazon can delivery anything to anyone,.... _except_ hot coffee? How does that happen? Mashing existing concepts such as facial recognition and applying it to drone delivery should not be patentable, it's not innovating sticking two existing things together, you should have to invent a new thing.
IBM are patenting the concept of a Flying Sheldon (The Big Bang Theory, in case you are visiting from another planet and haven't seen the show).
What next? Will we have to sign a contract that indemnifies them if the cup is inverted before it lands?
I'm surprised Amazon hadn't got there first as an extension of its delivery drone patents... "people who ordered Karma Sutra also ordered coffee afterwards"
Does the IBM drone just pick people at random and offer them whatever muck they were carrying? If it knows you have an allergy or weird preference, does it need to fly back to base to get your choice? (meanwhile you have moved or your mood has changed)...
A more achievable idea would be to tap your Starbucks/Costa app, select exactly what you want, pay for it and have it droned to you, but then IBM would probably not be able to add something like that to their ever expanding pool of patents due to prior art (Amazon, Scott Adams)
From the article:
>IBM has filed a patent for mood-sensing coffee delivery drones
No. You can file a patent application but it is the Patent Office (in this case the US Patent and Trademark Office) that grants patent. People seem to think you can just file anything and get it granted. In reality about 50 percent of all applications are granted. This one took a bit under 3 years to get granted.
The USPTO has unfortunately rather bad computer infrastructure (hardware and software) but Google Patents is far more user friendly: US10040551. It is one of the more bizarre patents I have seen, it appears to home in on sleepy people to perk them up with coffee (rather than, say, electroshock.)
Records show that IBM never brought the application into international phase which indicates they see little use of this. At least some sanity remains. It also means you can use this invention if you so feel in the UK without being stopped by this US patent, in which case I am sure the Reg will be very happy to write an article about it.