Foodie Bot projects an interactive menu onto the table that allows users to visualize exactly what they are ordering. Users would order through him one at a time and they can select whether they want to pay individually or together. Users can also pay through Foodie Bot with mobile payment systems once they are done ordering. With restaurants being short staffed, Foodie Bot can not only provide a positive customer experience, but they can alleviate some of the strain that is placed on the rest of the staff. He is not meant to replace humans or their jobs, rather assist and facilitate users when needed.
The team successfully developed a fully functioning prototype by combining a laser keyboard, a projector, and several electronic components. All of these components were housed in Foodie Bot's 3D printed body.
The user interface for the menu was designed utilizing Figma and was able to be controlled with an Arduino and some push buttons utilizing a software called blokdots. To simulate three different users sitting around Foodie Bot, three push buttons on the table were utilized for the user's to "call" Foodie Bot when it was their turn to order. When the user pressed their respective push buttons, Foodie Bot would rotate and project the menu to that respective user's side of the table.
This was the tricky part, we had to figure out a way for the push button to also communicate with Figma and the projector to "rotate" the projected menu. To do this, blokdots was used as a plug-in with Figma. Essentially, the push buttons were assigned different actions in blokdots. If push button 2 was pressed, blokdots would communicate with Figma to rotate all of the menu's artboard's -90º and so on for each of the three push buttons. So left, right or center depending on the last "location" of the user. The laser keyboard was connected via Bluetooth to the computer running Figma and blokdots. The keys were assigned different "actions" as to allow the user to navigate the projected menu.
