I spent a year of my life shopping a business plan for the tablets-at-the-table concept. I made a prototype system and tested it extensively at a restaurant. Guests loved it. Men came up with all kinds of efficiency-based reasons why they liked it (more accurate, faster, etc.) Literally 75% of women trying it (30 out of 40 or so) used the word "fun" and felt no need to justify further. And, customers perceive that a tip is warranted because food was brought to the table, so they tip anyway.

Restaurant owners/managers like the concept, as long as their customers do. The recognize that a single bad customer experience poisons the well. Not only is that customer unlikely to come back, but they'll tell all their friends. A spectacular experience does not have an equally positive result. So, given the option of customer experiences across a spectrum or consistently average experiences, they'll choose average and be pleased. The perception among owners was that few people could

Management complains that they can't get their servers to upsell/cross-sell/etc. One would think that the improvement in check average and thus tips would be sufficient motivation. However, people with good selling skills can make a lot more money selling other stuff. So, owners loved a system that could ask, "Would you like fries with that?"

I have to do some work now, but I'll post later today about why this went nowhere for me. There are some fundamental problems that are hard to circumvent.