We will start trying to sell machines pretty soon. Our background is in robotics so we thought this would be a fun application for the automation technologies we use at our day jobs.
We just showed this at Engadget Expand in NYC this weekend and made about 850 cups of coffee over two days. We wrote a scheduler which takes care of the timing and water volumes so every cup is the same. Parameters are controlled via an HTML5 app. The machine is built like a piece of factory automation equipment for good reliability. We've been running them 24/7 in the shop for months to verify the hardware.
The theater is a big part of it, we're definitely trying to strike a balance between the robot and the barista.