Automatic Food Service: The Meal of the Future?

Abstract

You work the overnight shift in a large hospital. During your break at 3 :00 AM, you go to the lunchroom, get out a plastic card, and insert it into the console of a food-vending machine. An entree menu appears on the screen of the console, and you punch the "hamburger" button. Using universal computer graphics, the machine next presents a menu of possible accompa niments : cheese, relish, lettuce, tomato. You choose "the works" by pushing a button for each option. Next you see a menu of side orders. Since you're in the mood for fries, you punch in that choice, and the terminal prompts you to specify either a large or a small or der. It is 3:00 AM, after all, so you choose small. The side-order menu reappears, but you aren't interested in onion rings or any of the other choices, so you press a button for the drink menu. After selecting orange juice, you press "terminate" because you don't want even to see the dessert menu. With your order complete, the machine begins preparing food, and soon serves -simultaneously -your