Pizza Hut reads your mind, knows your order before you do
Pizza Hut has a new tablet-based menu that tracks eye movements to determine what toppings your subconscious secretly craves for your next pie.
- Finalist for the Nesta Tipping Point prize and a degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
I have seen our future, and it is not the A.I.-decimated wasteland that smart guys like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking warn against. Rather, it is a far more delicious tomorrow in which Pizza Hut knows what kind of pie we really want before our brains have processed all the options.
The restaurant chain has already developed what it calls a "subconscious menu" that uses eye-tracking technology by Tobii on a tablet. You can see a demo in the video below; it's actually quite simple. The tablet displays a screen with representations of all available pizza toppings and by watching how your eyes travel between pineapple and sausage (yes!) or onions and garlic (wrong answer -- are you trying to convince the vampire behind you he'd rather drink your blood?), it determines what kind of pie your soul is truly crying out for.
It takes less than 3 seconds for the system to register your desires and run it through an algorithm with thousands of possible topping combinations to suggest your ideal pie, and Pizza Hut claims it's been 98 percent accurate in early testing.
You're not locked in to the system's suggestions, though, so you can feel free to try again if it suggests a bubble gum-barbecue chicken pizza.
Pizza Hut told the (UK) Telegraph that the system is still being tested, but could be rolled out to local restaurants eventually.