"technology" news and stories

First it was ATMs at the bank; then e-tickets at the airport and automated checkout at the supermarket. Now, the fast-food industry is on the technological bandwagon. The newest Jack-in-the-Box restaurants are offering self-serve kiosks as an alternative to dealing with, you know, people.

The idea has been around for several years -- kiosk demos were big at the Foodservice Technology expo five years ago, and now they are entering the real world. From a business standpoint, it would seem to be a no-brainer: A kiosk is always on time, never needs a bathroom break, and won't give the customer -- or the manager -- any lip. But are they cheaper hires?

Michael Norwich, Jr., who owns a new Jack-in-the-Box with a kiosk in El Paso, TX, explains that cost savings aren't part of the appeal. "It may be that the kiosk results in a higher-than-average check or increases the volume of sales, but it's hard to quantify that so far, since we only opened two weeks ago." He's not at all sure the kiosk will end up costing less than a live employee.

I'm generally very open to new technologies. I blog. I Twitter. While I don't have an iPhone (yet), I am perfectly sympathetic to people who feel the need to read CNN.com headlines during movie previews.

This, however, has me scratching me head: A "Pizza Cam" from Santa Clara, California-based Party Pizza pizzeria. You order your pizza, then log in to the "Dough Cam," "Kitchen Cam" and "Oven Cam" to watch your pizza in various stages of gestation. You can even get a Pizza Cam app for your iPhone.

I like the idea of knowing where my food comes from, but that doesn't generally get as specific as knowing what it looks like while the mozzarella melts. The phrase "like watching grass grow" springs to mind.

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With a recession in the US looming, restaurants are likely going to see some drop-off in their business, since people will be less inclined to treat themselves to lunches and dinners out. Still, that doesn't seem to stop restaurants from investing in new technology.

The new technology, which is being tested inin Europe, the United States, and Japan, allows customers to order their food directly from a screen at their table rather than a real, live waiter. Sounds like it would be expensive for these restaurants to install, but apparently, the technology is improving restaurant business by appealing to younger markets and cutting the cost of human resources. Later this Spring, Microsoft will roll out a technology that will transform an entire table so that diners can not only order their food, but play music and video games as well. At the table?

Gee, and here I thought we were making progress in The Delicious family by turning the TV off during dinner.

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It may not be available just yet, but you can put our names on the list for the ROLLERtoaster when it hits the market. It is definitely the toaster of the future. Sleek and compact, the toaster was designed by Jaren Goh of Singapore and won a 2006 Red Dot Design Award for innovation. Goh was inspired by the change of televisions from large and bulky boxes to streamlined flat-panels which retained all the functionality of the larger unit in a much more compact product. He applied that to a common appliance,the toaster, and the ROLLERtoaster was born. Slices of bread are "fed" into one side of the machine and are rolled through, fully toasted, to the other side where your plate awaits. The only potential problem is that it doesn't look like it will be able to handle bagels easily. Then again, neither do a lot of other toasters, so perhaps it's not as big a problem as one might think.

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Looking for new ways to get some perspective on how our bodies process food, some UK scientists have built an artificial stomach that simulates digestion. The machine is made from plastics and metals, all strong enough to withstand the acids that are part of digestion, and is controlled by computers, able to mimic all the physical and chemical reactions associated with eating. It is even capable of vomiting.

The designer, Dr Martin Wickham, is hopeful that "his model will help scientists understand more about how food gets processed in the gut, and which nutrients get absorbed." This knowledge could lead to new definitions of superfoods, which are supposedly the healthiest of foods, determining which nutrients are absorbed the fastest and how to get the most from what we eat. There are commercial applications, as well, and companies have already shown an interest in borrowing the machine to test out some of their new food products (health-type products) release a specified nutrient to the stomach that the company claims it does.

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