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Coffee Compass
Researchers from Microsoft Corp. have created an old-fashioned mariners compass that uses the Global Positioning System and an embedded database of Starbucks stores to literally point to the coffee retailer's nearest Seattle-area location.
One of the things it doesn't do is tell you how far away that location is. But "This is Seattle," said Raman Sarin, one of the researchers on the project. "You're not going to have to walk far."
The Coffee Compass was one of the projects on display at the annual Microsoft Research TechFest. But don't be misled by that device's seemingly whimsical nature. For the most part, this is serious business - in some cases signaling the potential direction of the products Microsoft brings to market.
Researchers Raman Sarin and Andy Wilson said they came up with the idea after they had a hard time finding coffee while attending a conference in an unfamiliar city. They acknowledge that no one would carry around something like this, but they say the technology could be put into something smaller, like a key chain.
The Coffee Compass, which researchers Wilson and Sarin developed together, might not be practical in its current form, a wooden box, the researchers said. However, the same type of technology could be embedded in something smaller and be used to locate other types of places beyond coffee shops.
As with many of the projects on display, the Coffee Compass is not likely to come to market any time soon. But Sarin said it addresses an interesting question. "We really looked at it as a study in user interfaces - how to make the most basic user interface that really can get the job done well," he said. "This is it."
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