The Smart Coaster is an intelligent coaster for your beverages. It recognizes the different types of beverages placed on top of it, with a cocktail the Smart Coaster glows in some atmospheric and slowly changing colors. If you place a cup of hot tea on it, it automatically starts a special tea timer program which shows you, when the tea is ready to drink. If the glass is empty or filled with a cold drink the Smart Coaster glows blue, if the drink within the glass is hot, it glows red.
Unlike all the other temperature sensors we have, this breakout has a really cool IR sensor from TI that can measure the temperature of an object without touching it! Simply point the sensor towards what you want to measure and it will detect the temperature by absorbing IR waves emitted. The embedded thermopile sensor generates a very very small voltage depending on how much IR there is, and using some math, that micro voltage can be used to calculate the temperature. It also takes the measurement over an area so it can be handy for determining the average temperature of something.
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