Paperless restaurants and cafes coming to a tabletop near you

Paperless restaurants and cafés could become increasingly common, with emerging technology that allows consumers to place their orders from a touchscreen tabletop and pay directly from their dinner table.

The Touch Table PC from South Korean company Moneual, was awarded a Best of Innovations 2013 award by the International Consumer Electronics Show CES, for designing an interactive system that eliminates the need for paper and enables customers to browse menus, order food, and pay directly from their table.

The technology can also be used in any public space, including hospitals, airports, and hotels.

The concept isn’t entirely new. London restaurant Inamo has been using an E-Table technology, billed as the world’s first interactive food ordering system with overhead projection technology, that allows diners to not only order their food on the touch screen, but also choose their tabletop décor with virtual tablecloths, watch the chefs prepare their meals in real time with a ‘Chef Cam’ and even book a taxi home.

Touchscreen tabletops are the latest innovations for automated dining, after tablet-based menus and robots replacing servers.

The CES show runs January 8 to 11.