Drink up that beer -- another will soon be whisked to the table thanks
to a hi-tech pint glass that tells bar staff when it needs refilling.



Developed by a Japanese electronics company, the intelligent glass is
fitted with a radio-frequency coil in its base and emits a signal to a
receiver set in the table when it's empty, New Scientist magazine
reported Thursday.

The iGlassware system works by coating each glass with a clear,
conducting material, enabling it to measure exactly how much liquid has
been sipped or guzzled.

When empty, the glass sends an electronic cry for more beer from the
table to waiters equipped with hand-held computers on frequencies
similar to those used by mobile phones.

A team from the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories working in
Cambridge, Massachusetts has made the first prototypes, but may find it
hard to sell the idea to Britons.

"It sounds like a fun idea, but I don't think it would work in
our pubs," said a spokesman for J.D. Wetherspoon, which runs over
500 pubs in Britain.

"The tradition in Britain is to get up and go to the bar for a
round of drinks, not to have a waiter bring beers to the table, no
matter how quickly," he said.