Avant l’appétit: An augmented reality interactive menu that elevates the gourmet food experience

Restaurant businesses try to come up with ways to increase and maintain their clientele. In many restaurants, images of food often misrepresent the quality and quantity of the menu item. The results are a disappointment on the customer side, and a loss of clientele on the business side. Gourmet restaurants have the ability to provide consistency, which helps in maintaining their client numbers. However, new customers are hesitant in trying this experience due to reasons of portion size accuracy, ingredient identification, language barrier and dietary preferences. This thesis investigated how the digitization of a traditional printed menu, can better enhance the experience of a customer at a fine dining gourmet restaurant. The proposed solution was the introduction of a tablet interactive menu, that would contain an augmented reality feature. The digital menu would provide a dietary filter option and include a language choice button. The augmented reality feature would provide accuracy in portion size and ingredient placement. The meals that would be portrayed in the augmented reality feature, would be reproduce in 3D with the use of the photogrammetry method. This thesis wanted to showcase the ease of use in creating and updating this digital menu. It also wanted to show how the merge of technology and culinary arts, can assist in building trust between customers and restaurateurs