With a lot of time and a few gadgets, some crafty creatives at home built a robot bartender powered by Arduino microcontroller.

Bartenders can be tricky to deal with. You always want to shop around to find ones that mixes a generous ratio of liquor, but it’s an added plus if he or she is also fun to talk. It’s even better if they throw you a free drink or two after a long night. While it can be hard to find all these qualities in one bartender, the Inebriator comes close. This Arduino microprocessor-powered robot can make you the perfect drink every time — and you don’t even have to tip or leave your home.

The setup is simple: rows of spirits lined up upside down, ready for pouring. When you order a drink, the robot moves the glass horizontally across the machine to obtain the calculated parts of a cocktail — making the drink with the exact same ratio each time. If you drink comes with a mixer, an external cooler attached to the machine spritz the final touches to complete your order. Did we mention a cool glow of lights changes colors each time a new drink component is thrown in?

This home project relies largely on the tiny Arduino board, an inexpensive processor similar to Raspberry Pi. While it doesn’t have the functionalities or capacities like Raspberry Pi, Arduino is relatively inexpensive and fun for programmers to experiment with in order to whip up something as creative as the Inebriator. From the looks from its website, putting the robot bartender together was no easy feat. Among the gadgets required, a Hitachi HD44780 compatible display, a stepper motor, RFID sensor, and LED lights were just some of the items used in the making.

The Inebriator creators are currently working on a second version which should hopefully hide the cords in the back of the machine and also heed to the recommendations from a recent Reddit forum. Some of the ideas discussed include a pressurized CO2 system to keep mixers carbonated as necessary. Our other suggestions are to figure out a way for the robot to grab a glass of ice itself, or adding a tumbler so the robot can shake and mix the cocktails to perfection.

No words on whether the Inebriator is meant to be made for commercial use or if the creators will release a tutorial for the curious programmers at home. While you ponder, here’s a video of the cocktail robot in action.

Originally introduced at SXSW, Vivogig brings its concert-focused photo app to the massive in a much more complete package.

Last year at SXSW, Vivogig released its concert photo-sharing platform just before the beginning of the festival’s Music Week. Admittedly, the launch was pushed out the door in order to make the show, and founders Tanner Moehle and Daniel Senyard both explained to be what I was seeing was a very surface version of what they hoped to do with it.

Now, the team is ready to push a big update that will enable a whole new host of functionality and features that the currently dead-simple beta version of Vivogig hasn’t had up to this point. Now the app will include a find your friends tool, location stamping, an upgraded interface, big, screen-filling photos in the stream, song previews via iTunes integration, hashtags, and the ability to follow other users as well as featured artists and a VIP section with behind-the-scenes content from performers.

Other improvements include a streamlined shooting experience, making it faster to shoot and share, “So you’re spending as little time as possible looking down at your phone,” the team tells me, something they also emphasized back in March. The fun and fancy of Instagram is the filter-choosing process, but that also means you’re stuck staring at a screen instead of, say, a concert. This is what Vivogig wants to prevent, while still creating a concert-focused photo experience.

Niche? Absolutely – but any good Instagram addict knows that concerts and events are some of the most popular photos shared on the application.

Given its position, I had to ask Vivogig if there we’re Instagram-like filter plans in the pipeline. Last time I asked this question, the duo spoke about getting eyes off screens and on the stage, but Moehle says that if they do choose to introduce filters, they’ll do it differently. “Something that shows off the lighting,” he says.

And what about video? Given that Vivogig is focused on social, live performances, and media, you’d imagine that the undeniably hot (and confusing) social video market might hold some intrigue for the startup. But you’d be wrong – for all the reasons critics keep bringing up: That even powerful smartphones can’t compete when it comes to A/V. “We didn’t find one band that like the idea of crowd-sourced video,” veteran music industry exec and chief strategy officer for Vivogig Raymond McGlamery tells me. “Labels will want their performance rights the minute we start uploading videos – they will pull stuff like that down.” Clearly, video and audio quality suffer when taken from a smartphone and bands and their management don’t want anything less than the best circulating out there. “Even as video gets better and better, audio won’t ever be able to get there from a stationary source that you can still make phone calls from,” McGlamery points out.

Since Vivogig’s initial launch in Austin, the startup has managed to raise 300,000 and is closing its angel round now. The partnerships Moehle and Senyard talked to me about at the time are still in the works, and together with McGlamery (formerly of Ticketmaster and Warner Bros), to talk with venues, media companies, labels, and managers about using Vivogig as a means to promotion. Specifically, McGlamery mentions concert hall holding contests for best user-taken photos, and getting bands to directly promote using Vivogig and weaving their into their branding. Of course, before this next phase is fully launched, the team wants to solidify the app itself.

“The original is great and it works, but it doesn’t have the functionality that will benefit people we’re talking to and we’ll have some big announcements in that department soon,” McGlamery says.