‘Fore! Beers please.’ Golfers in Japan will soon get drinks delivered by drone

By Lulu Chang Published September 28, 2020

This is what progress looks like. In what may be the most productive use of drone technology yet, Japanese firm Rakuten is toying with the notion of delivering refreshments to golfers while they’re on the course. Because sometimes, getting into your golf cart and getting off the green just to get a snack is too much to handle.

With this new concept, golfers will be able to place an order for anything from a drink to replacement golf balls using their smartphones and a companion app, and once the order has been confirmed, a quadcopter will make its way over to the awaiting athlete (pro or amateur, it really doesn’t matter), and make its delivery.

Recommended Videos

Sure, drones have been floated as a major player in the future of golf before (everything from capturing unique shots of the game to a new game altogether known as drone golf), but this really takes things to a whole new level.

For the time being it’s unclear which golf course will be the lucky test case for this new drone project, though we do know that it will be one of the greens located in eastern Tokyo near the University of Chiba. The relationship to the university is key given that a venture company associated with the institution has developed the flying machines, and will undoubtedly be carefully testing the drones for other, more ambitious projects in the future.

If all goes well, Rakuten hopes to take the drone delivery service to other golf courses and perhaps even other industries. Heck, why not have a drone deliver a bottle of water in the middle of a regatta? According to the e-commerce company’s president and CEO, Hiroshi Mikitani, Rakuten could soon be using drones to deliver various items to people’s backyards or to their balconies (because who has the time to go downstairs?).

Welcome to the 21st century, friends — where convenience really does reign supreme.

Former Contributor

Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…

Topics

Emerging Tech

Your future AR glasses might finally stop making the real world look weird

Researchers have developed a new display technique that keeps virtual objects realistic without dimming the real world.

Samsung AR Glasses

One of the biggest promises of augmented reality is blending digital objects seamlessly into the real world. Ironically, today's AR glasses often make the real world harder to see. Researchers at the Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT) in Japan, led by Assistant Professor Xiaodan Hu in collaboration with Dr. Yan Zhang and Professor Xubo Yang from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, and Professor Kiyoshi Kiyokawa from Japan's Nara Institute of Science and Technology, have developed a new AR display technique that aims to make virtual objects look realistic without reducing visibility of the real world. The study was published in IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

The biggest AR problem isn't virtual objects; it's everything around them

Emerging Tech

Anti-surveillance clothing is getting cheaper, but don’t expect an invisibility cloak

Affordable shirts now claim to confuse facial recognition, although their protection depends heavily on the camera and software watching you

Chart, Plot, Adult

Anti-surveillance clothing is starting to look less like an art-school experiment and more like something you could actually wear outside. Shirts designed to confuse facial recognition systems now cost about as much as ordinary streetwear, although buying one won’t make you disappear.

The Guardian reports that designers are using face-like prints, unusual cuts and infrared lights to interfere with computer vision. These techniques target specific weaknesses, so their success depends on what happens to be watching you.

Emerging Tech

This spinning drone hides in plain sight using a visual illusion

This drone doesn't turn invisible. It tricks your brain into thinking it has.

Phantom Twist

For decades, engineers have chased the dream of an invisible drone. The usual approaches have involved transparent materials, camouflage coatings, or complex optical systems that bend light around an object. Researchers at Northwestern University decided to take a completely different route. Instead of hiding the drone itself, they chose to fool the human eye.

The result is Phantom Twist, an experimental drone that spins so rapidly it almost disappears into the background. It's not technically invisible, but to anyone watching, it looks more like a faint blur than a flying machine.