Seriously, what’s a guy gotta do to get a drink around here? Well, one study suggests there are better ways to use body language instead of waving money like a wand to ensure quicker service at your favorite bar.
Researchers at Bielefeld University in Germany discovered patrons who positioned themselves squarely at the bar and made eye contact with the bartender had the best chances of getting drinks faster. (Via YouTube / MeBeJammin)
So whatever you've been doing is wrong. You're welcome. (Via Howcast)
Dr. Sebastian Loth, lead author of the study, said, "Customers identify themselves as ordering and non-ordering people through their behaviour." Loth and other researchers started by assessing customers' behavior 35 seconds before they were served. In 105 attempts, standing squarely at the bar was successful 95 percent of the time. Looking at the bartender was successful 86 percent of the time. (Via The Telegraph)
But the research findings aren't for you. They're for JAMES, or Joint Action for Multimodal Embodied Social Systems. The European Union funded a project to make JAMES, a bartending robot, more efficient at what it's doing. (Via Robots On Tour)
The JAMES project website remarks how robotics have become more incorporated into our daily lives. But the thing with robots is that they don't have good … social skills.
Researchers with the JAMES project hope to “develop an artificial embodied agent that supports socially appropriate, multi-party, multimodal interaction” — essentially, develop a robot that can work the social scene.
Loth updated JAMES' programming to reflect the results of study. So now the tablet-headed, wonky-armed JAMES doesn't really care about how much noise you make to get its attention. (Via YouTube / fortissTV)
The study's findings are published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
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