Futuristic Dubai Restaurant Uses Touchscreen Tables and 'Chef Cams'

Here's the latest in restaurant technology, straight from Dubai: Ebony Interactive Restaurant has outfitted itself with tables that are also internet-surfing touchscreens, allowing customers to browse the menu (complete with photos), order, and watch their meal be prepared via a "Chef Cam" which shows video feed from the kitchen. The owner tells the Khaleej Times that he wanted to combine "a unique dining experience" with the "latest technology," choosing to open in Dubai because "it already considers itself a smart city." TThe owner also describes the restaurant has having "excellent ambience," which might be hard to maintain if everybody is staring down at their tables, checking Facebook and watching cartoons (those are meant for children, of course.) For customers who choose to look up from their table, an interactive wall displays a digital image of fish swimming in a tank.

While tablets in restaurants is nothing new — even Apple has filed a patent on a mobile reservation and ordering system — Ebony Interactive Restaurant takes things to the next level. Not only can customers use their tablet tables to order, they can display table cloths, "send greeting cards to other tables," order taxi rides home, plus "view photos and share them with their companions on their individual seats on the table." See the tablet tables in action in the Blue Nile TV report below (in Arabic), plus watch the fish swim on the interactive wall:

Video: Ebony Interactive Restaurant - Blue Nile TV

Video: Interactive Wall at Ebony

· Restaurant Transforms Dining Tables into Interactive Tables [KT via @ElizabethOnFood]
· Ebony Interactive Restaurant - Blue Nile TV [YouTube]
· All Technology Coverage on Eater [-E-]