Mixed Reality Cocktail: Rum and Coke Mixed and Poured in Second Life... and Served in Vienna!

Yesterday someone invited me to watch what is almost certainly the longest and strangest cocktail drink order to ever get fulfilled: rum and coke drinks mixed in Second Life, and served in Vienna. From SL, the drink is mixed with two box-like buttons in Second Life, one to dispense cola, the other for rum. From there, the pour commands travel through the SL grid from San Francisco to the other side of the world to Vienna, where an Arduino board is connected to a laptop running Second Life which is in turn connected to a contraption with rum and cola dispensers. Voila: a rum and coke drink, from the metaverse across the Internet to an ancient European city where Mozart once played. (Somehow, I think he'd approve.)

The loopy genius behind this project is my friend Kyle Machulis (known as qDot Bunnyhug in SL), the hacker who famously used similar technology for, well, metaverse-based teledildonics. He's in Vienna on a fellowship, and last Sunday, showed off his SL-based drink mixer at the Roboxotica cocktail party. (Courtesy of Magggnus, here's some more photos from the event, which looks like insane fun.) To read more on how Kyle makes his mixed reality magic, check out these video demos on his site. Vienna photo courtesy Mr. Bunnyhug.

Comments

[Josue Habana]

Amazing. Now that is my kinda mixed reality...make mine a vodka!