Pizza Hut has revealed a new menu which determines what customers want on their pizza by detecting eye movements in their retina and then automatically building a pizza based on what they looked at.
Pizza is definitely not the first thing one thinks of when it comes to technology, but recently some new developments in the Pizza wars have shown that cutting edge technology is now being applied in the pizza business as well. Dominos started it with their real time pizza tracker that allows customers to watch their pizza progress on their computer or smartphone as it transitions from kitchen to oven and out for delivery. Recently they also added an app for both ordering and tracking on the Pebble smartwatch.
Now Pizza Hut is trying to one-up Dominos with their new Subconscious Menu. After viewing pictures of ingredients for 3 seconds, the retina-reading technology developed by Swedish firm Tobii determines which ingredients a customer really wants on their pizza based upon the time they checked out the item, such as sausages or onions. It then presents what it believes is the perfect pizza for that specific customer.
"We have quite an extensive subconscious relationship with our food and it's certainly the case psychologically that 'we eat with our eyes'" said Dr. Simon Moore, a consumer psychologist. "We are automatically drawn to foods that give us more nutrition- it is a safety mechanism we've inherited from primitive man that still plays a role in our subconscious decision making, even when we might be choosing pizza." But what if our subconscious wants nutrition and our conscious then disagrees, wanting something more satisfying or flavorful? If the customer isn't happy with what they are told they really want, they can reset the technology and begin again.
A spokesperson for Pizza Hut stated: "We wanted to try a few ideas on the traditional menu format and we're delighted to have developed the world's first Subconscious Menu, a unique way to reinvent the dining experience." Pizza Hut claims that the technology is 98% accurate, and is being tested first in select markets with an eventual larger rollout planned. However, they haven't come up with a solution yet for what to do when two or more people are ordering a pizza together to share, as is often the case, which could result in many arguments as to whose eyes will be used to order.
