The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: March 13, 2011

Official News page 11


GADGET OF THE WEEK: SLOT MACHINE DRINKS DISPENSER

by Hazed

Now here's a bit of hardware that combines alcohol and gambling into a BarBot - a slot machine where, instead of winning money, players are rewarded with a cocktail. What fun!

The BarBot was the winner of a hacking competition called "Take on the Machine". It started out as a slot machine which had been decommissioned and sold online. A team from hacking collective NYC Resistor bought it, decorated it and programmed it to mix drinks.

When a winning combination comes up, the computer sends ingredients and proportions to a microcontroller that acts as the waitdroid, directing liquids through nozzles to produce the ocktail. The wheels are only programmed to stop on traditional cocktail mixes so you shouldn't end up with anything too disgusting.

It cost $3,000 create and took 320 hours. For more info and a picture read the article here.


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