What better way to watch the Olympics than having a robot pour you a shot every time the United States wins a medal? The folks behind SmartThings did just that, by creating a machine that pours some liquor for each American Olympic win.
From the behind the scenes video, we see the entire build is controlled by an Arduino with an XBee shield. The XBee is connected to a simple iPhone app where the current user watching the Olympics can select which medal the US won. Bronze dispenses a shot of Jack Daniels, Silver is a shot of Jose Cuervo, and Gold means someone in the room is getting a shot of Goldschläger.
Even though the build revolves around the SmartThings framework, we’re not really quite sure what this framework is. From the Facebook page (the best source of info for SmartThings, at least until they launch), it looks to be a piece of hardware that serves as an Internet to XBee bridge, along with a framework for easily whipping up a mobile app.
Whatever SmartThings is, it’s still a very cool build.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPSo4t9Y4rw&w=470]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OlLco5XwkY&w=470]
I was hoping they’d tie it into an RSS feed (or other data source) and have it AUTOMATICALLY pour a shot whenever the US wins a meadal, instead of requiring someone to push a button.
Still, the workings of the dispenser are pretty neat…
It will soon be absolutely possible (and preferable) to tie into APIs and feed data to trigger events. You should check it out.
The problem with that is there are no real-time Olympics broadcasts on TV, so it works better to trigger the shot being poured manually. Also, you’ve got to be able to pour multiple shots for friends, right? ;)
Piffle, the BBC are broadcasting every event live. ;-)
If automated, throw in some logic and sensors to avoid messy multiple medal overflow situations.
in the first video he says it can and does pour automatically or by pressing a button on his iphone.
pretty sweet hack!
It is satisfying to see the nascent SmartThings platform already bearing the fruit of innovative makers. I cannot wait to see all the uses people come up with in the coming months.
…. this could be deadly if tuned to the UK cycling teams… glug glug glug glug
Like
Also like, pity bout Vicky today.
At least no Americans are going to get drunk using this thing :-P
Wouldn’t they be the only nation getting drunk with this machine. It only responds to American medals.
Depends who drinks it.
True
Nice idea…