[Digital Trends] "Fan Circle" Black Technology, Entering the Front Hall and Back Kitchen of Smart Restaurants

As the construction of smart cities continues to accelerate, we can increasingly feel the many changes brought about by digital technology. Food, clothing, housing and transportation in urban life are becoming smarter, and among them, the black technology related to "eating" is particularly eye-catching.

The 2020 China Smart Catering Innovation Summit held last week was a technology event centered on "eating". In recent years, the catering industry has been constantly trying to break through traditions and create a new smart industry. The increasing number of smart restaurants around us is a concentrated display of many technological innovations.

Compared with the restaurants we are familiar with, what are the differences between smart restaurants? What technologies make restaurants truly smart? Today, let's go to smart restaurants and take a look at the black technologies related to food.

Following Mr. Gangtie into the smart restaurant, the first thing we experience is the first service of the smart restaurant - ordering food.

That’s right, the smart upgrade of most restaurants starts from the ordering stage.

Many smart restaurants have begun to adopt the solution of Smart dining table , which integrates many functions: the table itself can become a large touch-interactive screen, which can clearly list pictures and price information of different dishes, from ordering to payment, in one step, which is equivalent to each table being an ordering and cashier counter. With it, customers can sit down directly when they enter the store, and no longer need to wait for the waiter to come to order.

Image | Pixabay

The next step is to wait for the dishes. In traditional restaurants, there seems to be nothing better to do during this time except chatting with friends or playing with mobile phones. However, smart restaurants are different.

The smart dining table is more than just a large menu. It also provides more entertainment options for customers while they are waiting for their dishes. The table has built-in interactive games, and can even be used to watch videos and movies. The table is also equipped with a wireless charging area, so you can charge your phone by placing it on it.

Some large restaurants will further expand these functions, set up special waiting areas, or use projection devices and interactive technology to transform the entire box into a personalized dining space, switch room scenes with one click, create different dining atmospheres, and provide customers with more entertainment and interactive options.

Image | Pixabay

The application of these front-end technologies has greatly optimized customers' dining experience. Thanks to this, smart restaurants will no longer be troubled by problems such as customers urging for food, and can also improve the restaurant's own work efficiency.

After you place an order by scanning a QR code or using the smart dining table, the rest is up to the restaurant's kitchen. Compared to traditional restaurants, the kitchens of smart restaurants are very different.

Following Gangtie to the kitchen, let's get to know the new members of the smart kitchen. The people who prepare dishes for customers may no longer be busy chefs, but many efficient cooking robots.

With excellent deep learning capabilities and flexible mechanical arms, these robots designed specifically for cooking are all "apprentices" of chefs, able to make many common dishes according to programs. The original chefs' work is also easier, and they can concentrate on controlling the quality of raw materials and developing new dishes.

Image | Pixabay

Due to cost and other issues, it will take some time for cooking robots to become popular, but the intelligence of kitchen systems has never stopped upgrading. For example, many chefs have started to have "big data assistants."

The front-end collects and records relevant data of customers, providing important references for the back-end kitchen to analyze. The chef understands the dishes that customers often order, their preferred flavors, and their personalized suggestions, so as to make dishes that better suit the tastes of customers. This back-end data analysis capability is also a direction for the current smart restaurant upgrade.

After a dish is cooked, it is the turn of the serving robots . Although they are inconspicuous, they are actually the outstanding achievements of autonomous driving technology : because the restaurant environment is relatively narrow and there are often customers walking around, these robots not only need to accurately locate the table, but also have flexible autonomous obstacle avoidance capabilities. With these technologies, they can move around the restaurant in an orderly manner and deliver dishes to customers.

Image | Pixabay

When dishes are delivered to the table, it also means that the smart restaurant has completed a round of process operation. All that remains is for the customers to enjoy the food!

The smooth operation of smart restaurants is the result of the full coordination of front-end services and new technologies in the back kitchen. In addition to enjoying classic cuisine, we can also appreciate the charm of digital technology here. From the current catering market, the general trend of intelligent upgrading has been formed. I believe that more and more smart restaurants will achieve comprehensive upgrades, and the intelligent dining experience will also become our new daily routine.

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