MooBella on-demand ice cream maker (linux powered!)

linuxdevices.com ^ | Feb. 8, 2006 | linuxdevices

[xcamel]

MooBella has put Linux to work making ice cream, in a vending machine that Wallace and Gromit would be proud of. The MooBella vending machine uses Linux 2.4 and a Red Hat filesystem to make 96 varieties of ice cream, on demand, in about 45 seconds per precisely-measured serving.

MooBella showed off its Linux-powered ice cream machine at a DEMO event in Colorado today.

Once the customer's selection has been made, a quantity of base mix is precisely measured and pumped, aerated, flavored, and sprayed onto a flat rotating surface, where it is flash frozen. The product is then scraped up by a tiny snowplow, formed into a cylinder, and dispensed into a paper cup.

Unlike soft-serve ice cream machines, MooBella creates real ice cream, the company says, in 45 seconds, to customer specifications. The machine consumes MooBella's proprietary formulas, which are packaged aseptically using "bag-in-a-box" technology that requires no refrigeration until the bags are opened. The machine has a 15-inch flat-panel LCD interface, with a touchscreen overlay that customers use to choose their flavor. The machine can be stocked with up to two "base mixes," 12 flavor mixes, and three dry-ingredient mix-ins, for a total of 96 possible varieties.

[xcamel]

What if you break a tooth on a kernel?
ping

[xcamel]

Ping your usual suspects, for fun.

[Hank Rearden]

Does it taste anything like ice cream, or does "ice cream" need to be in quotes?

What if it tastes like penguin droppings?

[MineralMan]

THIS JUST IN!

AP...Geekville

A new computer virus has hit the Linux-powered custom ice cream machines, causing havoc at campuses everywhere. According to sources, the virus causes the Linux application to subsitute flavors from Berty Bott's Every Flavor Beans instead of the 96 normally available flavors.

Gary Gerrell, astudent in the CS deparment of Geek University in New Hampshire said, "Whoa, Dude! I punched in Raspberry Almond, uh, but what came out was Vomit Flavored Ice Cream. I was so not pleased."

In a similar incident Linda Thies, a Sophomore in the Biochemistry department received not the Chocolate Bubblegum flavor she had requested, but got, instead, Ear Wax flavored ice cream. "I was like, uh, what the **** is this ****?[expletives removed) Her partner, Sylvia Sibian, told our reporter, "It was way rude. I mean..."

Investigators from the New Hampshire Free State Linux Project are tracking down the originator of this virus. Spokesperson Lionel Sharkman promised, "We'll get the hacker. By the way, do you have any papers? I left mine back in my apartment."

Updates as available.

[LibFreeOrDie]

http://www.moobella.com/flavorgallery.php

[A knight without armor]

Vanilla with walnuts, please.

[ShadowAce]

[Still Thinking]

Did Al Gore invent this? ;-)

[beef]

Cool

[postaldave]

if you change the chocolate source would it break the machine or would you have to recompile the entire recipe?

also, would you have to have admin rights to add more sugar or would standard users be able to adjust the formula?

[xcamel]

Better question: "Is Kennewick woman the 'Lucy' of North America ?"

[beef]

"Is Kennewick woman the 'Lucy' of North America ?"

That would seem more likely than the ancestors of the so called" Native Americans".

[xcamel]

"We Have A Winner!!"