"Amy Lynn Young-Leith" > wrote in message

> I'm working on a project (for a course in design) where the task is to
> design an intelligent coffee machine of the future.

Why intelligent ? I prefer them dumb and lovely.

>I want to ask a
> number of people what THEIR desires for a future coffee machine would be.
>
> I'm limiting the scope of this to INDIVIDUAL users (think a machine that
> would go in a home or small workgroup, not something behind the counter at
> a coffeehouse) that brews espresso (not some machine that tries to do it
> all).
> What would make it your dream coffee machine? A certain function -- or a
> LACK of a certain function?

I think the machines for home usage have too small capacities to be used as
main coffee machine in most houses. They are secondary coffee-maker for all
the persons I know that have some in real life, because of that restriction.

If a machine could produce 1 cup when you're on your own, and 12 cups to be
served together the day you have guests (it's only Monday, Wesdnesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for me), that'd be a huge improvement.
Also, if the machine could, in addition of "espresso" produce decent
"coffee" like the commercial machines are able to do. That'd be nice too.
Maybe that'd be possible if you could change all the block and buy a
regular-block, cafe-crema-block, many-guest-block...as you need.
The hot water supply should be precise too, so the machine could make also
tea when needed.

> A feature or fun accessory? Get creative and
> think outside the box -- no wrong answers here, just idea generation!

I want a screen like on my camera, and it will keep record of what sorts of
coffee are inside it as it will be a superauto that you feed with a few
sorts of beans (maybe green). Or make that data appear on my telephone.

There shouldn't be any box. If it's in the kitchen, it's integrated and only
a sort of tap appears on the counter, you place the cup under it and wait.
If it's in the living-room (I'd prefer), it's inside a cool piece of
furniture and same thing, you see only the tap, and when you've finished
drinking, you put the cups back in the drawer so the machine cleans them and
heats them for next time..
Make it silent please. And no plumbing headaches. If it's the furniture
model, it has to roll and to have a rechargeable battery so you can take it
all over the house and garden. Add handles (hidden when not used) so it can
easily be carried in stairs too.
No need to make it fly, but that'd be cool to have it float in the air about
one meter above the floor (I had a cool teddy-bear balloon like that when I
was a kid) and have the machine follow me like a little dog. Yeah, it would
come with me in the train, people would envy me.I'd go to *$ with it, to
tease them. Now we're talking of the second generation anyway.

The other solution is to develop mini-machines that would produce one cup
only. But you'd get one machine per person. Or you'd receive a set of 6 or
12 as marriage present, they'd be very stylish and assorted to the service
of tableware. The size would be less than 20 cm long, the weight 200 g
empty. Think of a nice tray to carry and store them.
Maybe, you'd get one for espresso, one for capuccino, one for regular
coffee... or they'd be versatile. Pods would be needed I suspect, but in
future, everybody would have a pod-maker in the kitchen (to transform
automatically green coffee beans into pods) or a similar system to recharge
the personnal machines with coffee/water /milk/sugar/ice/flavoring....and
gas for the pression.

Well, that's silly, I'll certainly end up with an Ethipian coffee jar and
you too, as machines will become so altmodish...the progress will be have
your mini-coffee tree in your flat and gather fresh beans daily. Don't lose
time on machines, find us a design for the pot of our cafetal, with a system
to water it when we are on holidays.
It's fun to try to imagine.

Kuri