Pizza Hut introduces so-called subconscious menus that can be controlled using one's eyes and mind alone

Dec 9, 2014 08:05 GMT  ·  By

If we're going to be honest here, it must be said that, when it comes to choosing the perfect pizza toppings to go with our mood on any given day, we're bound to find it difficult to make a decision. Do we or do we not want mushrooms on our pizza? How about pepperoni? Maybe both?

It just so happens that Pizza Hut is all too familiar with the struggle we go through each and every time we have to settle for some pizza toppings and disregard others. The good news is that, rather than poke fun at our internal turmoil, it has decided to lend us a helping hand.

Not to beat about the bush, word has it that several Pizza Hut restaurants in the UK now offer customers the chance to pick and choose toppings with the help of so-called subconscious menus that employ eye-tracking technology to read people's mind.

Using your eyes and mind to order pizza

Pizza Hut's subconscious menus comprise a tablet fused with an eye-tracker. The tablet serves to introduce pizza lovers to the toppings they can choose from. The eye-tracker, on the other hand, keeps tabs on their response to either of these toppings.

The idea is that, by measuring the amount of time a person spends looking at each topping, the mind-reading menu can figure out what a customer wants to eat without their having to go to the trouble of actually uttering the words naming the ingredients.

Having figured out what your average Joe or Jane wants on their pizza, the subconscious menu reveals the dish and patiently waits for the order to be confirmed. If the menu got it right, the order is sent to the kitchen, and soon enough, the silent customer is served their pizza.

The odd menu was especially created for indecisive folks

As mentioned, Pizza Hut's fairly bizarre menus were created in an attempt to make life easier for those who have serious trouble when it comes to choosing one pizza topping over another. The idea is that, long before we figure out what we want, our subconscious mind has already made a decision for us.

Thus, these subconscious menus supposedly tap into our most hidden wishes and desires when it comes to what we want on our pizza, and reveal them to ourselves and, most importantly, to the people making our pizza, The Conversation explains. Pretty cool, right?

Are these menus all that reliable?

True, being able to order our favorite pizza with our eyes and our mind alone sounds like a dream come true. Still, one cannot help but wonder whether this eye-tracking technology is all that reliable and whether it wouldn't be better to place our order the old-fashioned way, i.e. by speaking.

Let's face it, it can sometimes happen for us to stare at a pizza topping not because we actually want it, but because we're having trouble figuring out what it is or because we're trying to remember whether we've eaten it before. Besides, it can happen that we already know that we want a certain ingredient and, therefore, only look at it for a split second.

Simply put, chances are that Pizza Hut's subconscious menus can't read our mind accurately enough to get our order right each and every time. Then again, this eye-tracking technology sounds like a fun addition to the toppings sorting process.

So-called subconscious menus read your mind (5 Images)

Pizza Hut restaurants in the UK now use subconscious menus
The menus take people's order by reading their mindThe menus monitor how much time people spend looking at certain toppings
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