I was actually in the process of building a service like this, but the kicker on this model is of course the hardware. No matter who keeps the hardware on their

I was actually in the process of building a service like this, but the kicker on this model is of course the hardware. No matter who keeps the hardware on their inventory, it's not a negligible cost, especially when you account for maintenance, replacement, all of that. I started working on this project because I work as a waiter. And because of that background, I think that this concept a little risky. There are too many old-school types who won't dig this. But there are a TON of young folks who love to interact with anything touchscreen-y. But the real value in this system is of course the data. This could be a huge "Voice of the Customer" platform because it can do what other VoC vendors cannot do: provide a high response rate for customer feedback attempts. Receipt surveys, e-mail surveys and all the rest are terrible at getting an accurate readout of customer sentiment. If this company is smart about the kind of database it keeps (creating a customer profile across different restaurants/ retail locations) it could be a tremendously powerful. These devices could be used in so many other locations for feedback. Restaurants are just the gateway. Oh, and if anyone from E la Carte is reading, I'm available for a summer internship. :-)