Operating a restaurant sounds like a pretty straightforward process that hasn’t changed much over the years. All you need for success is great food, good service, and a nice ambiance. But with emerging technical trends, even the restaurant industry is adapting.
Here are three innovations that are already paving the wave for the restaurants of the future.
Menus in Augmented Reality
Everyone at some point has ordered something that looked and sounded appealing on the menu, only to be disappointed. Augmented reality, or AR, can provide a live view of real-world environments, either directly or indirectly.
Menus in AR can be enriched by sounds, graphics, data, GPS location, or secondary videos. While virtual reality replaces your physical environment with a digital one, AR adds to your perceptions with additional input from computer-generated sounds and images.
An app called Kabaq, for instance, can provide 3-D, 360-degree views of your dishes in the correct size and portions, or allow you to review ingredients and see side dishes. This New York-based company is hoping to transform the food-ordering process by presenting menu items in AR format as if they were right on the table.
Instant and immersive visualization of every menu item can encourage customers to try new dishes while allowing the restaurant more opportunities for branding and upselling. By utilizing this app over mobile devices, guests can make informed choices while waiting to be seated or before leaving home.
3D Printed Food
3D printers can utilize more than plastics and powdered metals. They can apply a variety of edible colored and flavored substances. This technology is already being used in gourmet eateries, specialty bakeries, molecular-level research into the food sciences, and to provide nutritious, easily chewed foods for seniors.
Chuck Hull invented 3D printers in 1983. Since then, the idea of printing your own original designs as real-world objects has been a benefit to businesses of all kinds, including artists, educators, and manufacturers. Now they are helping chefs create unique and customized treats for diners.
The additive process of 3D printing is no longer about producing personalized trinkets or prototypes. Advanced machines and materials have brought exciting possibilities to 3D printing and delivered some amazing results.
Modern 3D food printers can deliver a variety of dough, sugars, sauces and more through nozzles of different sizes and shapes with great precision and consistency. Added layers can be fused with lasers or guided into exact shapes and patterns by robotic arms.
Such devices can create some very complex shapes and dishes that excite diners, but with a complexity and accuracy that a human chef couldn’t match. Additionally, 3D printers need less preparation and maintenance and can run on their own, leaving the chef free to do other tasks.
Robots
Robots have been a part of the modern workforce for decades. They’ve especially made an impact on the automotive industry, where they can perform tasks like welding and painting tirelessly and with high consistency.
However, as the software behind them evolves, they are beginning to serve in more complex roles. Robots can be adapted to almost any task. In the food service industry, they are used to handle kitchen tasks and even interact with customers.
This blend of robotics, AI, and personal devices is appealing to modern tech-savvy generations that are comfortable without human servers. Even less-progressive restaurants can save time and money using robots in the kitchen to do prep work.
Final Thoughts
New technologies are poised to have a big impact on the restaurant industry. Augmented reality may transform marketing and customer interaction, while robots and 3D printing will change the way restaurants operate. These innovations provide benefits to owners, as well as guests. The traditional concept of dining is about to become both more exciting and more efficient.
