You want fries with that, we predict; technology anticipates fast-food customers' orders
A new technology may allow fast-food restaurants like McDonald's to anticipate customers' orders before they even place them.
PITTSBURGH - Do you want fries with that? Never mind, we already know. A Pittsburgh startup, HyperActive Technologies Inc., is testing technology at area fast-food restaurants designed to give kitchen workers a good indication of what customers want before the hungry souls even get close enough to place an order.
The system, known as "HyperActive Bob," is in place in several restaurants around Pittsburgh in a primitive form: It tells employees when they are about to get busy, even how much food to put on the grill.
The system uses rooftop cameras that monitor traffic entering a restaurant's parking lot and drive-thru. Currently, the system is all about volume: If a minivan pulls in, there's apt to be more than one mouth to feed.
By this time next year, HyperActive Technologies expects to have in place software that keys on the type of vehicle entering the parking lot to determine whether the...
Dr. David P Murray | 10/15/2017
