If there is one thing that has driven humanity forward in the last several centuries of technological progress, one thing that we’ve striven for above all others, one thing to which we bring our ingenuity and prowess to bear upon with laser-like focus, it is ordering pizza.
The technological pizza revolution no doubt started with the ability to order online, but these five technologies take it so much further than that. What, you’re still ordering by phone? You might as well send a telegram. Here are just a few of the ways that you can have pizza delivered to your house faster than you can say “meat lover’s with extra cheese.”
1. Smartwatch
Don’t go through the hassle of digging your smartphone out of your pocket. Domino’s wants you to be able to get a pie right from your wrist, and to that end they’ve launched an app for your Pebble or Android Wear smartwatch.
I don’t know why you’d ever need to order a pizza from your watch. Perhaps when looking at the time, the round face of your timepiece will remind you of your love for a good pepperoni. Or maybe you’ll notice it’s almost dinner time and you’ve forgotten to plan ahead. Either way, at least your watch can make it pretty clear when your pizza doesn’t arrive in 30 minutes or less.
2. Smart Car
First of all, let’s be clear: do not order pizza and drive. It’s just not safe. Visa and Dublin-based Accenture are teaming up with Pizza Hut to let you place your order right from your connected car’s dashboard. Location-based technology will even let the pizza place know when you’ve arrived to pick it up.
The car-based ordering system is a concept now, but it could be a reality all too soon. And once again, we implore you: let your passenger do the ordering–even if they want anchovies.
3. Smart Table
Pizza Hut is clearly at the forefront of pizza ordering technology–and well they should be, given that “pizza” is in their name. The franchise is considering installing smart tables that let customers order their pizza with gestures, using a touchscreen interface to select the size of pizza and add toppings. We just hope those fancy tables are grease- and cheese-proof.
4. Eye Contact
It doesn’t get any simpler than looking at a pizza. Pizza Hut–yes, them again–is testing a system that let’s you order your pizza via a tablet that can track the motion of your eyes. Using that technology, it can figure out what pizza you want by which toppings you spend the most time looking at, then order the pizza it knows deep down you really want. (Sausage, shrimp, and pineapple? You monster.)
5. Print Your Own
Sometimes going out to get pizza is just too much work, so why not print your own? A 3D printer can dispense sauce and cheese as well as it can extrude thermoplastics, and it’s definitely way, way tastier than plastic. This 3D pizza printer is still in development, but if there’s anything we’ve learned from this, there’s just no stopping technological innovation when pizza is involved. Some day soon, we will probably all be printing our own pizzas.