DRONE IDEA: COFFEE ON AUTOPILOT
IBM files for a patent on caffeinated delivery system based on a person’s ‘cognitive state’
Do you ever wish a drone could just drop hot coffee right on — or rather, in — your hand?
No? Well, file this under things you didn’t know you needed. A patent filing by IBM — which created Watson, the computer that beat a human “Jeopardy” champion, which we also didn’t know we needed — suggests it is interested in coffee delivery by drone. What’s more, what Big Blue has in mind is a smart system that aims to anticipate just when someone could use a shot of liquid caffeine.
IBM calls the system “drone delivery of coffee based on a cognitive state of an individual.” It would deliver coffee by drone to those who order it, say, at the office or a conference. The filing says the system could possibly deliver multiple drinks at a “large office complex.”
The drone system also would be equipped with cameras and sensors that allow for facial recognition — and that “can recognize certain physical characteristics of a human that are associated with sleepiness or grogginess.” It would “proactively and automatically” make deliveries by assessing various points of information, including: sleep quality based on Fitbit or Jawbone device data; whether someone’s at a work meeting based on electronic calendar information; biometrics; and pupil dilation.
That means if you don’t
want some enterprising drone barista to offer you a cup of joe, look alive. Plus, staying alert might help in case you need to dive out of the way of an errant drone bearing hot liquids.
Kidding. IBM’s patent filing, made public this month, shows the inventors thought of that. The coffee cup could come in a leak-proof bag that’s “sufficiently
“IBM encourages our researchers to pursue their interests, even though not all of their inventions become commercial products.” — Amanda Carl, director of communications for IBM Research
strong to retain the coffee in the event the coffee is accidentally dropped from the drone before delivery.”
The filing mentions that the coffee could be made by either human baristas or robotic coffee makers. It also talks about heaters, so the coffee could arrive piping hot and delicious.
And did we mention the possibility of delivering other types of drinks, such as alcohol? But because it’s a smart system, it should be able to determine whether “it is not better to serve an additional
drink,” the patent says.
In addition, the inventors envision a system so smart that it could learn how people take their coffee, or take into account whether the coffee (or maybe the alcohol) might not interact well with someone’s medication. The patent mentions this could all somehow be done “in accordance with appropriate privacy rules.”
Of course, some patent ideas never see the light of day, so coffee-carrying
drones may or may not be on their way to help wake you up. If IBM goes through with its plans, though, the drone baristas could join the skies filled with Amazon package-delivery drones, perhaps on their way from the Seattlebased e-commerce giant’s floating warehouses. Amazon has received patents for both of those.
Really, though, will IBM ever develop and commercialize technology based on this drone-system patent?
“IBM encourages our researchers to pursue their interests, even though not all of their inventions become commercial products,” said Amanda Carl, director of communications for IBM Research, on Thursday. “By publishing their inventions as patents, we give our researchers the recognition they deserve and make their work public so it can inspire new innovations.”