Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Stats Mug

  (+16)(+16)
(+16)
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There's a probably a market in the bored office-worker demographic for a mug which displays on its exterior statistics relating to the owner's tea (or coffee) drinking habits. Simple accelerometers and a selection of volume, temperature and other sensors would be linked to a small processor in the base of the mug and then to LCD displays around the outside. Example statistics might be:

- average time between sips
- average temperature at which tea is drunk and current beverage temperature
- steadiness of drinker's hand (using the accelerometers)
- average number of cups of tea a day
- total number of cups of tea this year
- percentage of this cup of tea left in mug
- beverage strength (based on a comparision of light levels at the top and at the deepest part of the mug)
- etc., etc.
hippo, Aug 17 2009

[link]






       Will it have a docking station ? Will it be able to upload stats to a host PC ? Will the high end model have Bluetooth or WiFi ?
8th of 7, Aug 17 2009
  

       [8th] I'm not sure about the docking station, but certainly some sort of communication with a server application on your PC for the heavy-duty analysis (such as that which [Ian] suggests) would be essential. Then, having got your statistics online, grouping and cross-comparision between all Stats Mug owners can be done and you would be able to see, for example, what percentile of beverage temperature you drink your tea at.
hippo, Aug 17 2009
  

       Mightn't this feedback-at-source mechanism encourage dangerous attempts to skew the figures? e.g. The building of tea drinking robots who "consume" a beverage at a temperature 2 (or even 3!) standard deviations from the mean, allowing for bragging rights "You see that spike at 94°, that's me that is."
zen_tom, Aug 17 2009
  

       // attempts to skew the figures //   

       No need to build robots - just hack the app on the PC and inject some false stats.   

       This is much more a user-orientated biofeedback device - giving an up-to-the-minute graphical display of the exact extent to which the ingested tannins are slowly pickling various internal organs.....
8th of 7, Aug 17 2009
  

       oye, who emptied me slops?
po, Aug 17 2009
  

       [1] I run WorkRave anti RSI software. Given a link to this, WorkRave will be able to take drinks breaks into account.
[2] I assume this is compatible with the little drinks holder thing that slides out of the front of my PC when I press the 'eject' button? [+]
RattyBunyip, Aug 17 2009
  

       It'd be too embarrassing. Uhmm for some of us at least ;-)
blissmiss, Aug 17 2009
  

       [bliss] You can conceal a heavy beverage habit by using three or four mugs with different 'identities'.
[po] Is that a euphemism?
hippo, Aug 17 2009
  

       Will this be an open or a proprietary architecture ? Will there be specialised plugins for the monitoring app for different markets ? In the UK, a biscuit-dunking monitor would be useful; percentage of tea absorbed by biscuits rather than being drunk, sludge accumulation rate, failure/breakage rate, successful "saves" of a detached, floating biscuit portion using a teaspoon or ruler ?   

       The whole thing could be linked to a Lone Worker alarm, with suitable timing tweaks; Select "Programmer" and the alarm sounds if there's more than a minute between movements, but select "lawyer", and the app only polls the mug when changing from standard to daylight saving time, or back again.
8th of 7, Aug 17 2009
  

       There could be two of them. +
csea, Aug 17 2009
  

       +   

       Needs to be dishwasher safe
DenholmRicshaw, Aug 17 2009
  

       // we need a new ieee tea telemetry standard. //   

       [marked-for-tagline]   

       Would that be 802.11t by any chance ?
8th of 7, Aug 17 2009
  

       hee hee [hippo] never thought of that!
po, Aug 17 2009
  

       WiMaxwell House?
Jinbish, Aug 17 2009
  

       We'd have to ask the High Tea department.
coprocephalous, Aug 17 2009
  

       Well, everyone likes nice cup of tea and a pun ....   

       Could bring a whole new meaning to "Internet Café" ....   

       // Anno of the month nominee //   

       Makes a change from being [UB]'s "Anus of the month nominee" ... then again, there's a week to go yet.
8th of 7, Aug 17 2009
  

       autonomously powered by a ring of solar=cell material and/or thermo-electric thingy... I'm in [+}
FlyingToaster, Aug 17 2009
  

       // I have a deep and abiding respect for you //   

       I think we need to have a word with Doctor about maybe reducing your medication for once. ......
8th of 7, Aug 17 2009
  
      
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