LONDON — Drink up that beer — another will soon be whisked to the table thanks to a hi-tech pint glass from Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories that tells bar staff when it needs refilling.

The intelligent glass is fitted with a radio-frequency coil in its base and emits a signal to a receiver set in the table when it's empty, New Scientist magazine reported on Thursday.

The iGlassware system works by coating each glass with a clear, conducting material, enabling it to measure exactly how much liquid has been sipped or guzzled.

When empty, the glass sends an electronic cry for more beer from the table to waiters equipped with hand-held computers on frequencies similar to those used by mobile phones.

The Mitsubishi team, working in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has made the first prototypes, but may find it hard to sell the idea to Britons.

"It sounds like a fun idea, but I don't think it would work in our pubs," said a spokesman for J.D. Wetherspoon, which runs over 500 pubs in Britain.

"The tradition in Britain is to get up and go to the bar for a round of drinks, not to have a waiter bring beers to the table, no matter how quickly," he said. (Reuters News)

(c) Reuters News 2002