Latte art is now something of a well-recognised craft.

Baristas lovingly create sophisticated and stylish designs on the top of their lattes.

In fact, many coffee shops create images in their lattes as a matter of course, to give their customers a visual as well as a tasty treat.

However, there has been a story in the news recently, which indicates that latte art has been taken one step further.

What is it all about?

The Barista Bot has been designed by Hypersonic and Rock Paper Robot and it has come up with an innovative way of personalising the design in the latte art for customers.

What does it do?

A webcam takes a pic of the customer and then the Barista Bot creates an image of the face of the customer with its robotic arm in the latte.

Impressed?

Okay, perhaps the design is not going to win the Turner prize but it is certainly more individual than the template designs which are often used.

The Barista Bot was created as part of a GE marketing stunt.

However, who is to say that this idea will not take hold and develop into something more commonplace in the future?