Kancai ｜ Swipe your face and eat, cooking meals ... AL restaurant is really wisdom or a gimmick

Robotic cooking, calculating calories when ordering ... There is a "AI cafeteria" in the most prosperous Guojin Center in Changsha. The AI ​​canteen sounds high -tech and grounded, is it true wisdom or take the "net red" route to play gimmick?

The industrial change led by technology is becoming a trend, and the catering industry is no exception. During the Beijing Winter Olympics, the smart restaurant full of the Main Media Center of the Winter Olympics has become a beautiful landscape.

Smart restaurants and robots send food. In recent years, there are many people trying in the catering industry. However, in Hunan, which especially values ​​"taste", the combination of "artificial intelligence+catering" seems to be not so easy to successfully "debut".

(Picture: AI cafeteria located near Changsha Guojin Center.

Intelligent operation, the price of the cafeteria

At around 5 pm, the "South China Red AI Canteen" began to prepare meals. Through the window, Kan Caijun saw that a robot and three chefs were busy in the kitchen.

On the long dining table, the meal that can be selected is very rich, and it is all -fried, staple food, fruits, soups, and beverages. There are also some seasonal foods, such as crayfish.

Behind each dish, there is an electronic screen that shows the name and price of the dishes. It also marked the value, fat, protein, carbohydrates and other values ​​contained in this dish.

After choosing a meal, customers can bind meals, order, pay for meals, pay, pay, and self -help through face recognition or scanning QR codes.

(Figure: Intelligent device in AI cafeteria. Photo by Kancai Jun)

With the advent of dinner time, the people in the AI ​​canteen slowly increase.

"A meal costs about 15 to 30 yuan, and how much is the food." The netizen "Eating the Scallion" is a frequent visitor to the AI ​​cafeteria. He said that the price is acceptable.

Wang Jin, who is dining, is a fitness expert. He told Kan Caijun that you can know the calorie content in each other like this, which is simply the gospel of fat loss enthusiasts.

(Figure: Citizens are in AI Canteen. Photo by Kan Caijun)

At the entrance of the store, Mr. Zhuang and his wife tied the plate through "brushing". He said that when he is old, he sometimes does not want to cook by himself, and he comes here. They are not proficient in the use of smartphones, but after entering the personal information to the system, they only need to "brush their faces" for each time they come to the store and pay them according to the system displayed.

Ms. Yang, the person in charge of the store, told Caicai Jun that since its business in October last year, there were about 500 consumers every day, with a per capita consumption of about 20 yuan and a monthly income of more than 300,000 yuan.

"AI Canteen" has "new" and "heart"

The main catering restaurants focusing on smart and robotic characteristics have emerged in Changsha a few years ago. As soon as the customer entered the door, the robot welcomed it and asked hello; after the dishes were ready, the Meng Mengda robot was sent to the table ...

Such a robotic restaurant is hot for a while, but it is not good. Some media visited 6 robotic restaurants on the streets of Changsha and found that three of them closed down, one withdrawn, and only one of the normal business.

The former robot restaurant now has an "advanced version".

In July last year, the first AI community canteen in the country opened in Shanghai. Hongqiao Community AI canteen achieves digital management and unmanned cooking techniques throughout the process.

(Picture: Shanghai Hongqiao Community AI Canteen. Source: Surging News)

Compared with the previously welcomed by the robot and the delivery, the AI ​​cafeteria is more wisdom. This "AI cafeteria" in Changsha, from intelligent dining tables, electronic menu, intelligent weighing platforms to intelligent retail cabinets, self -service settlement desks, smart cash register, etc., provided one -stop, full -chain self -service service Essence

The person in charge of the store told Kan Caijun that after inspecting the AI ​​cafeteria in Dongguan, Guangdong, he tried to open a smart cafeteria in Zhuzhou in July last year. After successful exploration, I went to Changsha and invested nearly 2 million yuan to open this AI cafeteria, completely facing the market. At present, business is good and consumers have good feedback.

"Next, we want to enter the community." Ms. Yang, the person in charge of this AI cafeteria, told Cai Caijun that technology should not stand on the "opposite" of the elderly, but to help the elderly. The community AI canteen can not only help the elderly and adolescents solve the problem of dining, but also the nutritional indicators in catering can also be set more accurate, such as personalized meals in combination with medical examination reports, customers with diabetes Reminder, etc. will be made.

"Artificial Intelligence+Catering" still depends on the future

Ai Media Consultation data shows that in 2020, the core industry market in the artificial intelligence industry exceeds 150 billion yuan, and it is expected to exceed 400 billion yuan in 2025. However, the application of artificial intelligence in the catering industry is still in its infancy.

Information technology makes ordering and payment more convenient, and the dining process is more pleasant. But customers are willing to walk into a restaurant, in the final analysis, they still have to rely on "color and fragrance". Especially the Hunan people who have been used to Hunan cuisine, the taste is even more "tricky."

Before the "AI cafeteria", the chefs must be "tun" before the chefs. The chefs quantitatively and modified all the parameters of the cooking robot. For example, how much weight dishes, how much oily salt sauce and vinegar, etc., repeatedly experimented and tasted, determined a set of best parameters. Now the well -fried pepper fried meat in the store is made by cooking robots.

However, cooking robots can not really "take one side".On the one hand, there are only a dozen dishes that can be made. Some dishes such as tofu cannot be used for cooking machines, and the dishes that need to be used for oil, simmered water, and processed can not be used by machines.10,000 yuan, large investment, the peak dining period, the speed of the meal of a machine could not keep up, or the chef still needs to go to the battlefield in person.The chef in the store appreciates the stir -fried robot.With this "not much" helper, they can put more energy on screening and testing ingredients, thereby improving the quality of meals.

Some experts have said that science and technology serve better quality of life.Artificial intelligence cannot completely replace traditional restaurants, but the rapid development of technology contains the huge potential of integration with the catering industry. This is worth looking forward to.

Author ｜ Cao Xian, Zhang Qiwen Hou Haowen Liu Wei

Edit ｜ Wang Yaobing

Source ｜ Kancai

- END -