The user orders their drinks from the app and goes to the bar when they are ready. While waiting for the drinks they can play with a digital game that projects a stream of bubbles onto the bar.
According to Cambridge Consultants the ‘wow-factor experience turns the mundane act of ordering drinks into a memorable Instagram-able moment’.
Its creators see it helping to attract, engage and retain customers, while improving the operational efficiency of bars.
The app will be debuted at Innovation Day 2019, an invitation-only event, showcasing ‘future technologies that will transform our world’ this week (December 4-5) in Cambridge, UK.
“To stand out from the crowd, brands in many different sectors are striving to provide more than just a product or service,” said Rosie Parrish, user experience designer, Cambridge Consultants.
“They want to create a memorable and meaningful experience for the customer. Blending everyday technologies in the right way is a great way to create these elevated brand engagements.”
Cambridge Consultants believes digital order journeys improve time efficiency and staff productivity, but they are often bland, forgettable transactions and the consumer experience needs to be elevated.
It claims the experience begins at the table with a conventional phone-based drinks order. But rather than just collecting prepared drinks, the customer is alerted when a server is ready to make the drinks.
Placing the phone onto the bar triggers the serving experience, while the interactive bubbles identify the customer and order.
‘Unlike conventional drinks ordering apps, drinks are never left unattended at the bar – they are linked to the phone as they are prepared for the customer’, the company claims.
NFC technology
The technology behind the app includes NFC and machine vision to detect the phone, its position and its orientation.
The system also ‘sees’ the drink on the bar and changes the status of the order, spinning the projected drink name from the server’s point of view to the customer’s.
The machine vision can also detect and track other items on the bar, such as bar mats. It creates virtual avatars of them, which interact with the stream of bubbles.
Graphics move from the phone to the projected environment, while moving physical objects on the bar surface allows the customer to play in this digital/physical space.
Once all the drinks have been placed on the bar the bubbles burst, and the order is complete.
