In the Mood for Some Ice Cream?

      

       Feeling down?  Aww…Have some ice cream!  Feeling really down?  Have some more ice cream!  That’s just the idea behind Demetrios Kargotis’s new invention called the Mr. Whippy machine.  This self-serve frozen custard machine recently debuted at the Ars Electronica digital art festival in Linz, Austria.  Here’s how it works: The customer answers a series of questions.  Those answers are then evaluated by software using voice stress analysis.  The machine then measures out the appropriate portion of ice cream according to your “amount of misery.”  In other words, the sadder you sound, the more ice cream you get.  Sounds like an interesting idea, but right now it’s just an art concept and the inventor isn’t even really calling it a prototype.  However, it kind of makes you wonder if machines like the Mr. Whippy really could be used among the general population someday.  Technology definitely shows a move toward humans communicating with machines on a higher level than ever before.  The only problem with this machine is that just saying the name Mr. Whippy alone would increase anyone’s mood.  Then no one would get as much ice cream.  I mean, they couldn’t have picked a more fun name to say if they tried, unless they called it the Mr. Diffenderfer machine (Sorry, John.  I couldn’t resist.)  Forget Dippin’ Dots.  This is what I call the ice cream of the future!  So practice sounding depressed and master the art of the DQ swirl because you just never know when a Mr. Whippy might pop up in a town near you…

   

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