The BAR of the future: Robot waiters, floating cocktails and sensory rooms could transform our Friday nights
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In a couple of decades, revellers will be sitting in a pub laughing at what we consider to be a good night out.
They'll probably wonder why anyone would wait three-deep for a drink or shout their order over deafening music while leaning over a sticky bar.
This is the high-tech generation that will have their drinks tasted by robotic tongues, paid for using embedded chips and delivered straight to their table by drones.
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In the future, revellers will be able to decide which bar by using apps that will reveal a bar's male to female ratio, which friends have checked in and the average age of the bar's customers
They'll be able to use apps to find the ratio of men to women in a bar before getting there, and adjust the decor to match their cocktail with the swipe of a hand.
This partying generation will even have pills to help sober them up before going home, and apps that warn them when they're about to go over their limit.
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While it may sound far-fetched, the technology to make this happen already exists - and a number of pioneering researchers are now attempting to transform our nights out.
For instance, there are now apps, such as SceneTap, that can tell you the type of person in a bar ahead of time.
Robot bartenders will be on hand to make recommendations, pour drinks and make small talk with customers
As well as floating cocktails, there may be the option of inhaling vapourised alcoholic drinks with straws
SceneTap works in 25 bars in San Francisco. As patrons walk in, their faces are analysed, their gender determined, and the stats uploaded.
By measuring distances, such as the length between the nose and the eyes, an algorithm can match a person's dimensions to a database of averages for age and gender.
The app user can then browse the bars via Google Maps - and see just how the male-to-female ratio and average age racks up in real-time.
Once inside the bar, researchers are betting that future generations won't be happy with simply drinking cocktails from glasses.
In anticipation of this, scientists have created the world's first levitating cocktail machine which uses sound waves to suspend tiny droplets of alcohol that can be licked out of the air.
British inventor Charlie Harry Francis came up with the idea for the Levitron along with Professor Bruce Drinkwater of Bristol University.
'It's a pretty powerful machine,' he said. 'We've made a levitating gin and tonic at 70 per cent proof and a levitating Bloody Mary cocktail using vodka at 160 per cent proof which will blow your socks off.'
As well as floating cocktails, there could be the option of inhaling vapourised drinks through straws - a concept already being developed by Vapshot.
There will be a range of ways to consume alcohol, including licking it from the air and 'drinking' the vapour
Robotic bartenders will be used to taste drinks and check for flavour. They can also help personalise a brew
The decor will be just as important as the way a drink is served, according to researchers.
A recent study has found that sipping whisky in a room where the predominant colour is red means you'll taste a greater amount of dark berry flavours.
Pine walls, meanwhile, will give whisky a woody taste, as does lingering by the fire.
The bar of the future may have technology that will allow users to change the settings of their private rooms using simple hand gestures.
Last year, in what Professor Charles Spence described as the world's first science experiment to look at how the surroundings can impact flavour, three hundred whisky drinkers were let loose in a bar.
The specially designed Singleton Sensorium in London's Soho saw people tasting exactly the same single malt whisky in three rooms that had very different environments.
The rooms changed the whisky flavour experienced by the users significantly.
Drinks will no longer worry about the morning after the night before, as pills can instantly sober them up
Once inside the bar, customers will be able to pay for drinks remotely, with cocktails delivered by drones
If the decor doesn't do the trick, then a robotic taster could make sure you're served the perfect drink.
Earlier this year, researchers created the ultimate beer taster - a robot tongue so sensitive it can distinguish between different varieties and even check alcohol content.
The Spanish team said their 'robo-tongue' is the first to be able to spot its favourite tipple - and could find a job in the quality control areas of brewers.
The team at the University of Barcelona used 21 sensors in their robo-tongue, and trained it to distinguish between Schwarzbier, lager, double malt, Pilsen, Alsatian and low-alcohol.
The system proved to be 82 per cent accurate.
'The concept of the electronic tongue consists in using a generic array of sensors, in other words with generic response to the various chemical compounds involved,' said Manel del Valle, the main author of the study.
Earlier this year, researchers created the ultimate beer taster - a robot tongue so sensitive it can distinguish between different varieties and even check alcohol content. The device is made up of 21 sensors (pictured
Even if you have the perfect drink, queuing at a crowded bar has always been one of the biggest headaches of a Friday night.
Do you risk losing your table jostling for position behind rival boozers, or do you hang on until the queue dies down, only to watch it build up once more as your thirst becomes more extreme?
Orderella, a new UK-based app, aims to solve this age-old dilemma by allowing people to use their mobile phone to order drinks.
The Orderella app lets pub-goers place their orders for drinks online and be alerted when the bartender has made them.
And users can even do this from home, meaning when they arrive at the pub there will be a chilled round waiting at the table.
Scientists have created the world's first levitating cocktail machine which uses sound waves to suspend tiny droplets of alcohol that can be licked out of the air
Orderella lets pub-goers place orders for drinks online and be alerted when the bartender has made them
In the future, expect your cocktails to been ordering cocktails with a sprinkling of moon dust or a splash of comet debris.
This is according to the Dogfish Head brewery in Delaware which has created a beer using real lunar material.
The out of this world brew was developed to celebrate the autumnal equinox last year with the help of ILC Dover- a local company known for creating the Apollo space suits.
Named the Celest-jewel-ale, the brewery describes its flavour as 'doughy malt, toasted bread, subtle caramel, and a light herbal bitterness.'
It added that the dust is made up mainly of minerals and salts, helping the yeast-induced fermentation process and lending 'a subtle but complex earthiness.'
A beer brewed with moon dust might sound like a lunatic idea, but it is now a reality thanks to a Delaware brewery and the company behind Nasa's Apollo spacesuits
The five per cent alcoholic brew even comes with a beer sleeve made from the fabric of a spacesuit- making it the best protected beer on the planet.
You can order a cup of coffee in hundreds of different way – and soon you could be able to personalise a pint of beer too.
Engineers have developed a 'barista-type experience' for beer drinkers where a barman can adjust a gadget fitted to a beer tap to adjust the 'hoppiness' level on demand.
The 'Hoppier' device means that new flavours of beer could be created by drinkers to suit their tastes.
In recent years, there has been a big rise in the number of speciality beers available in Europe and a huge growth in the craft beer scene in the US.
Engineers at Cambridge Consultants claim to have 'transformed' the brewing and dry-hopping process, which usually tales two weeks, to enable consumers to change the flavour of beer in seconds.
The decor of a bar could help change the flavour of the drink, with hand gestures used to change lighting
Engineers have developed a 'barista-type experience' for beer drinkers where a barman can adjust a gadget fitted to a beer tap to adjust the 'hoppiness' level on demand (pictured left and right)
But what about the hangovers? Scientists have that covered to with plans for hangover-free alcohol and antidote pills that can switch off drunkenness.
It's sounds too good to be true, but this could be the future of drinking according to controversial former government drugs adviser, Professor David Nutt.
Last year he boasted that he is on the threshold of inventing what sounds like the answer to many a sandpaper-tongued Sunday-morning lament.
The professor, an expert in how drugs affect the brain, has been experimenting with laboratory-created substances that will allow people to switch intoxication on and then off again.
First, you drink a glass of his synthetic creation, designed to produce the same happy, fuzzy feeling engendered by a moderate amount of alcohol.
Then, once you tire of being drunk, you simply swallow an antidote pill to sober you up instantly.
Professor Nutt, who works at Imperial College London, says harm-free booze would 'revolutionise' healthcare. 'These ambitions are well within the grasp of modern neuroscience,' he claims.
Future generations will be able to use apps to find the ratio of men to women in a bar before getting there
Hangover-free alcohol? Drunkenness that you can switch off with an antidote pill? It sounds too good to be true, but that could be the future of drinking according to controversial former government drugs adviser, Professor David Nutt (pictured)
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