Creepy Psychic Pizza Menu Tracks Your Eye Movement to Detect What Toppings You Want

1418128554228924

Motherboard contributor Gian Volpicelli has a funny report this week on his interactions with a bizarre new menu system about to be launched by Pizza Hut, which claims to be able to guess each customer’s subconscious choice of pizza by tracking their eye movements. Kinda creepy in a “big brother is actually just a foodie” sort of way.

I approached the device with the skeptical agenda of debunking its mind-reading capabilities. My profile made me a hard nut: I am vegetarian (ok, pescetarian) and I was born and raised in Rome, where I have learned to love basic, light pizzas—a pizza with mushroom and tomato is the most complex I can stomach. If the psychic menu pulled a haphazard guess, I would know.

My first encounter with the machine lasted about ten seconds. Just the time to stare at the black screen, glimpse the colourful ingredient collection, and then the verdict emerged: turned out that I wanted a Cajun Sizzler, a jumbo pizza generously laden with chicken and pepperoni (which, I realised, wasn’t Italian peperoni—peppers—but a very meaty thing). A second attempt was an even more resounding fiasco, as the wise device suggested something called Meat Feast. It took a third try, and a lot of studious basil-gawping, to have the tablet dish out a light, vegetarian option.

So, the “mind-reading menu” didn’t work? According to a Pizza Hut spokesperson, the answer was less clear-cut: “Subconsciously, you probably wanted those pizzas.”

A more technical explanation is given by Simon Moo​re, a psychologist who was involved in the device’s development. “We are automatically driven to foods that give us more nutrition—it is a safety mechanism we’ve inherited from primitive man that still plays a role in our subconscious decision making,” Moore is quoted as saying in the company’s press release. In other words, my vegetarianism was nothing but a thin moral veneer screening a Meat Feast-craving caveman.

Read more.


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 38,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — JP’s Product Pick of the Week — 4pm Eastern TODAY! 11/12/24 @adafruit #adafruit #newproductpick

Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: New Pi Goodies, Pico Powered Fallout T-45 Helmet and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Halloween, WiLo, and more!

Maker Business – Adafruit Daily — First Solar’s $1.1 billion development of vertically integrated factory in the U.S.

Electronics – Adafruit Daily — Oscilloscope Jumble

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.