I had this idea while at a fast food restaurant. I noticed that the soda dispenser at the drive-through had a set of buttons that the operater would press depending on the size of the cup. There were little picture of cups on the buttons. They would stick a cup under the spout, and press a button, and the cup would fill (almost) up. As the cup was filling, they would have a few extra seconds to grab some fries or a burger and toss them in a bag.
They would then have to top off the soda, since the dispenser was designed to produce a certain amount and not actually fill the cup all the way. There is a lot of foam produced while dispensing soda. The machine has to stop early to keep from making a mess.
When I was a little kid, I noticed that when you pour a liquid in a cup, you can hear an echo which changes in pitch as the cup gets full. This comes from the acoustics of the cup, and the amount of space above the liquid. This is where my latest idea comes from.
What if you could put a microphone over the cup, and measure the echo as the cup fills? This would allow a processor-controlled system to fill the cup precisely. If the foam came up too fast, it could stop and resume after the foam went back down. It could turn on and off as needed, and allow the operator to have a full cup at once. It could also function without regard to the cup size, and could actually determine the cup size by the acoustics.
This idea would revolutionize the fast-food industry. If anyone wants to use it, I will be happy to accept a mere tenth of the profits. Thanks for reading, and come back soon for my next bright idea.
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