New soda machines are cool but a step behind

The newer soda machines you see at theatres and the “cooler” restaurants have nice touch panels with many soda choices.  We call it “pop” in the Chicago area ;-)   I’ve seen these new machines around for 4-5 years or so.  They are far better for choice than the 5-9 or so fixed soda choice machines of the past.   Not only can you select your favorite sub-flavor soda but you can navigate a relatively easy set of menus to find it.  These machines are not without issues.  In my experience, the menus/panels are laggy and slow.  Many mistouches occur due to the lagginess and often I have to ‘think’ about how to use the soda machine, especially if I’m backing out of a menu.  The machines are already outdated.

The new version of this machine must accept natural language!!  Of course!  I should just walk up and say “diet caffeine-free coke please”.  The machine confirms visually, and I say “yes” or just press the dispense button.  If I have questions I can ask, for instance “what diet caffeine free cokes are there?”  A list of possible choices shows up.  I can certainly tap for the one I like or just say “regular please”.  

That’s it.  The language lexicon for this is SO SMALL it should be done NOW.  I dream of the natural language enabled soda machine being at Five Guys, McDonalds, etc…  and theaters!   

Pop! 

NLP Baby!!!  Just beautiful.