It is called the Heinz Automato. Having Heinz in the name does give a clue that it has something to do with tomato ketchup. But what could ‘Automato’ mean? Well, it is a combination of the words auto and tomato. Does that give a hint? Let me make things clear for you. This is an automatic tomato ketchup delivering machine.
Bill Fienup and Barry Kudrowitz are the brains behind the ketchup delivering gadget which they have named the Automato. They have achieved this by using some basic radio controlled cars and CO2 cartridges. The cartridges are placed in the ketchup bottle and the bottle is placed on the RC car. You can find two muscular arms jutting out from the sides of the bottle. When a target is defined, for example a sausage hot dog, the car is taken to the spot using the remote control. Once in position, the ketchup is shot out at the press of a button. Before shooting you can see the device garnering up enough pressure by winding up its muscles.
The models displayed in the released videos show two size variants. The basic mechanism remains the same. The difference is in the number of ‘shots’ that each one delivers. While the Automato 3 delivers only one shot Automato 4 is capable of giving more than one. The movement of the vehicle depends upon the functionality of the RC cars used.
The videos of these ‘wonder gadgets’ gives a feel that the makers have had a whole lot of fun working on it. Probably, this is one reason behind the designing of so many wonder products. It could be necessity or the desire to achieve something new. And when this is done with excitement and fun the results are amazing.
The Automoto is an innovative concept and a lot of fun to have but it still needs a lot of modifications. As can be seen in the videos, the device does tend to miss its target. It even gives you more than you can take in one serving. It requires a little taming down to help control the serving size. No doubt children and teenagers are bound to have fun with the ketchup shooting gadget but ending up with red all around the place is not going to be such a pleasant sight. Not to mention the cleaning up session. Till then it is going to be fun watching the internet get splashed with tomato ketchup.
I know it is great fun to play around with this toy. But you can also try Ketchup and Mustard Squeezos for some more fun!
