It is a fundamental fact of life that googly eyes make anything better; this was scientifically proven by Gรถdelโs Incompleteness [Without Gรถogly Eyes] Thereom in the 1930โs. It follows then that the much-maligned automatic coffee makerโa brewer that, in truth, canโt really get much worseโcan be made leaps and bounds better with the introduction of a pair of wacky black dots rolling around all nimbly bimbly like. But if you really want to ratchet up the cuteness factor, do as a couple of creative college students did and add some arms and a few Alexa-powered voice commands. Then youโve reached peak adorbsion.
According to the Verge, the worldโs handsomest Mr. Coffee is the creation of students David Frank and Carter Hurd, who connected the machine to a microphone and a small single-board computer, allowing it to function as Alexa, Amazonโs intelligent personal assistant, but you know, in coffee pot form. The modification won the duo Best Hardware Hack and Ohio State Universityโs student hackathon, HackOHI/O.
Unfortunately, the machine isnโt able to use voice commands to make coffee. But with the flick of a switch, Mr. Coffee doffs his little filter and showers himself in coffee grounds in an adorable if not a bit messy display of brewing ingenuity. The Verge reports that Frank and Hurdโs next goal is for the machine to respond to the command, โAlexa, make me coffee,โ by actually making a fresh pot of coffee.
But what they have now is a good start and is the first automatic coffee maker of its ilk that I actually want on my countertop. And even if it is a little messy and its scoops imprecise, itโs still doing a better job than a few baristas I know.
Zac Cadwaladerย is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network.
