As gamers and movie buffs ourselves, we here at NVision are also fans of foods ideal for hands-free consumption. And now it appears as though the folks over at Popcorn Indiana are developing a new way to eat popcorn via voice commands.
The company describes the Popinator as the “world’s first automated voice activated popcorn shooter,” which fires a single popcorn kernel at its user once it's given the command to “pop.”
Unfortunately, the popcorn machine doesn’t appear to have the ability to pop fresh popcorn (at least, not yet). Instead, it’s designed to be loaded with bagged popcorn, which its inventor Indiana Popcorn produces.
According to Popinator’s electrical engineer, the device actually determines the location of where its hungry user is in the room by calculating the arrival times of sound waves and their reflections. It can also launch popcorn into a person's mouth from up to 15 feet away. Popinator’s creators note that due to the varying sizes and aerodynamics of individual popcorn kernels, exact accuracy is impossible and therefore users may be required to occasionally move their heads a little to catch their airborne snack.
While this might sound like a practical joke, Indiana Popcorn appears to be quite serious about its new invention. And based on the video (watch it above) it actually looks pretty cool.
No information on pricing or availability has been given so far, but the company is apparently hard at work on the prototype version.
