Have you ever thought of programming your fridge to scream... "supply running low... supply running low" when you are almost out of beer?.? Be honest!

@jackson55: darn. Keep this thinking up and you could be a billionaire soon :D

@TheBlueWay: You think I jest? It may not bo too far in the future.

@jackson55: no. That's exactly what I mean. If you could find a way to implement this. You would literally become a billionaire overnight

@TheBlueWay: Could be done fairly easily, if one had the know-how. Don't they have smart fridges yet? You could theoretically hook your fridge to your Amazon account or whatever, and have it auto-order items on a schedule.

@TheBlueWay: The opening of a can or bottle is fairly distinct sound, as long as it's within earshot of Alexa or another always-on surveillance tool they already know. Connect it to fridge door opening, from the inside light, to weed out false positives. Of course, then you get to all the already existing privacy concerns ;)

If people frequently crack them open on the patio or something, you need to get creative, if there's a rack or something for the beverages, any number of sensors from weight to distance to simple microswitches to rfid tags depending what happens to be cheapest.

Might have individual cooling sleeves with rfid chips and insulating easy-grip surface because I think people might be willing to pay just for that, and it allows you to identify beverage and store them where you want in the fridge. As an additional benefit, you could warn when there's a risk they wouldn't be sober to drive in the morning (or order Uber).