We wrote about the two jars before the summit. This is the other half — what they did once there were people standing in front of them.

IoT Summit ’26, at the VMRDA Children’s Arena in Visakhapatnam, on 17 September 2026. Sweet lime in one jar, watermelon in the other, each jar standing on a platform we had built for it, and a scoreboard above the table. Visitors helped themselves to a glass of fresh juice, and the glass they poured was their vote. Seven hours later, the juice battle finished 55–55.

Traction started to build a little after eleven

The first cups went out before the hall had properly filled. From then on there was always somebody at the table — if not for the juice, then to see who was winning the juice battle.

Visitors gathered at the Dharanova booth in the late morning, cups in hand, the two juice jars on the table. — Late morning, the first wave still finding its feet.

The wider IoT Summit 26 floor in Visakhapatnam, with a crowd in front of the summit backdrop and sponsor boards. — The wider floor, mid-morning. IoT Summit ’26 — Connecting the Future.

You did not have to go looking for it

The banner did some of the work. Mostly it was the jars themselves — tall, lit from underneath, each sitting on a platform that had clearly been made for it — that pulled people off the main aisle. The load cell and the board that read it were under the platform, out of sight, which is where they belonged.

A card on the table asked for feedback and an idea. Most of the people who took a glass filled it in and left us an idea as well.

Harsha Vardhan Patri at the Dharanova booth asking visitors to move closer to the centre of the stand, with a crowd gathered around the table. — Harsha asking the enthusiasts to move closer to the centre, where the live scoreboard was easier to see.

Pour a glass, cast a vote

A glass of juice from either jar earned a point, and the point went straight up on the display. The intelligence built into the board knew to wait, too — it held off until there was enough juice in the glass for the pour to count.

People picked their sides and started rooting for one or the other — Lime Slasher or Melon Crusher. Plenty of visitors asked which one was losing before they decided which juice to drink :)

Nanupatruni Mahesh Kumar and Ramu Madada helping a visitor to a cup of juice at the Dharanova booth, the scoreboard reading 3 to 2 behind them. — Mahesh and Ramu helping a visitor to a cup of juice.

A visitor in a suit talking to the Dharanova team beside the jars, with the scoreboard visible behind them. — “So it just… knows?” Asked a few hundred times before six o’clock.

110 glasses

One hundred and ten glasses went up on the board over the course of the day, and a fair few pours never made it that far — half cups, top-ups, one glass filled in two goes.

Under each platform was a load cell, with an ESP32 beside it reading the weight and sending it over Bluetooth to a small hub on the table, and the hub did the scoring. Nothing went to a server. Nothing waited on the hall’s wifi, which by lunchtime was carrying a few hundred phones.

Ritesh Bonthalakoti at the booth beside the scoreboard and the printed flow diagram showing sensor reading, Bluetooth notify, event stream, game logic, persistence and display. — Ritesh explaining the workflow.

110
glasses verified and scored: 20.2 L
poured across both jars: 55–55
where it finished

The crowd stopped thinning between waves

Most stands breathe: a rush when a session lets out, then twenty minutes of nobody. Ours skipped the second part. Every time one group wandered off with their cups, another had already formed behind them, phones out, asking who was winning.

By mid-afternoon it was not individual visitors any more. Whole groups walked over together, most of them sent by somebody who had already been.

A dense crowd standing around the Dharanova booth watching the scoreboard. — One group left with cups, the next was already there.

Visitors at the booth looking at phones and Dharanova cards while the scoreboard runs behind them. — Cards, phones, and somebody asking who was winning.

A Dharanova engineer handing a small paper cup of juice to a visitor at the booth. — First taste, no pitch required.

A visitor filming the jars and the live scoreboard on her phone. — More than a few people filmed it before they drank it.

Five all, and nobody moved

There is a particular quiet that happens when a board ties. For a few seconds after it went to 5–5, the table stopped talking — and then the anticipation took over, everybody waiting to see which side would break it.

Visitors and Dharanova engineers around the booth scoreboard showing a five all tie during a round. — Round 1, tied 5–5. The board did not move for anyone, but people tried.

Competition, and a fair amount of laughter

For all the competition over which juice would win, the table kept finding its lighter moments. A group would arrive asking about sensor accuracy and Bluetooth range, and a few minutes later the same group would be laughing at a score that flipped at exactly the wrong moment, or at a cup that missed.

Five seconds from the middle of the afternoon — a serious contest on the board, and a good deal of laughter around it. No sound, nothing arranged.

The card next to the jars

Beside the jars was a small printed card with a QR code on it: tell us what you thought, and leave us an idea.

By the end of the day, 86 people had left an idea and 89 had rated the stall.

How the stall was rated — 89 taps on the card, anonymous.

When the 86 ideas came in, by the hour. The three o’clock rush followed a session ending.

The same figures in words

Of the 89 ratings, 86 were “great”, three were “ok” and none were “meh”. The 86 ideas arrived through the day: eleven in the eleven o’clock hour, four at noon, one at one, eight at two, 36 at three, eight at four, fourteen at five and four at six. The busiest ten minutes brought thirteen of them, starting at 15:10, right after a session let out.

An idea that came through won a small gift at the table, most of them collected within a minute of the number appearing on the phone.

The ideas themselves were more grounded than we expected from a crowd holding juice. Water tanks that ask to be refilled before the tank runs dry. Gas leaks in the kitchen. Fans and lights that notice the room they are in. Batteries, charging and what a pack has left in it. Hospital oxygen cylinders. A dozen of them arrived together from one college, in the way a class does.

A Dharanova engineer standing with two visitors beside the jars, the feedback card on the table and the scoreboard behind showing round 6 with lime ahead 4 to 3. — Round 6, lime up 4–3 — and the feedback form for sharing an idea.

It only worked because somebody was standing there all day

A stand like this lives on whoever is at it. Pouring, rinsing cups, straightening the table, and answering the same three questions for the fiftieth visitor with the same patience as the first. That was the job for the whole day, and the team carried it off with aplomb.

The Dharanova team standing with visitors in front of the booth and the two juice jars. — Late in the day, in front of the table.

A larger group of Dharanova engineers and visitors gathered in front of the booth at the end of the day. — Not only IoT enthusiasts and students — entrepreneurs and business owners came by the table too.

What we took home

Preparation and execution are what decide a day like this, and the day proved it. A month of building, a week of rehearsing, and then eight hours of strangers pouring at it. The board still held at six in the evening.

And then the pile of ideas. We went to show that an ordinary object can be made to notice something. We came back with 86 suggestions for which object to try next, which is a better souvenir than anything we carried in.

Two jars, 110 glasses,and a 55–55 finish