Self-service system for quick drinks

MAPLE PLAIN, Minn. – A new beverage distribution system gives new meaning to “a quick drink”. Called the iPourIt, the system allows customers in a bar to serve themselves their own drinks and keep tabs on every ounce poured.

Once a bar decides to install the iPourIt system, it will have to position some or all of its taps in an place accessible to customers. The taps will have to be fitted with iPourIt valves, meters and RFID readers; or install a pre-configured standalone kegerator.

To access the system, a customer has to obtain an RFID wristband, dubbed the iPourIt Pass, from a staff member who scans the patron’s driver’s license and credit card to activate the wristband. When the customer initiates a pour, the iPourIt Pass reader scans the wristband, verifies the account and checks to make sure the customer hasn’t reached any limits set by the bar. The customer then pours his or her own drink. The meter tracks the pour and automatically adds the exact ounces poured to the customer’s tab. Customers can also create a profile on the iPourIt website to see the beers they’ve poured at all iPourIt equipped locations, rate them, find favourite beers at nearby taps, reserve pints ahead of time and even buy rounds for friends.

Cool Idea! Award winner
This is the latest product to receive the Cool Idea! Award from Proto Labs (NYSE: PRLB), the world’s fastest manufacturer of CNC machined and injection molded parts. “The combined benefit to the business and the customer is what makes iPourIt such a cool idea,” says Larry Lukis, founder and chief technology officer of Proto Labs. “The fact that it not only eliminates a customer’s wait time, but also helps the bar provide better service and reduce waste is a classic win-win.”

The Cool Idea! Award was launched by the Proto Labs, an online and technology-enabled quick-turn manufacturer of low-volume CNC-machined and injection molded custom parts for prototyping and short-run production, in 2011 to give product designers the opportunity to bring innovative products to life. This year, Proto Labs expanded the program to the European Union and will provide $250,000 total worth of prototyping and short-run production services to award recipients.