Project14 | You Decide the Next Monthly Project Competition!

Another idea for a Project14 theme is "cool kitchen gadget".

It could be an appliance hack or a new gadget.

It could be a food or drink dispenser, including pet meals.

All sorts of kitchen processes could be automated or electronically measured and monitored.

I don't think a beer can chicken pot would qualify unless you added some electronics.

Many kitchen appliances are electric and many that are manual could be less work if they were powered.

We spend a lot of time preparing food and drink and it is an important activity.

It is well worth exploring ways to do it better and more efficiently.

Another idea for a Project14 theme is "cool kitchen gadget".

It could be an appliance hack or a new gadget.

It could be a food or drink dispenser, including pet meals.

All sorts of kitchen processes could be automated or electronically measured and monitored.

I don't think a beer can chicken pot would qualify unless you added some electronics.

Many kitchen appliances are electric and many that are manual could be less work if they were powered.

We spend a lot of time preparing food and drink and it is an important activity.

It is well worth exploring ways to do it better and more efficiently.

I suspect that there may be a few 'hot kitchen gadgets' as well 

I spotted this precision cooker student project from Cornell ECE4760 recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksFkCiItizM&index=58

Could even make a "software only" kitchen project. OK, you would need a bar code scanner or something.

You could input all the ingredients in your cupboard, along with all the spices, and stuff in the fridge. Then perform a lookup for a recipe that uses what you have, or provide you with a shopping list if you have a hankerin' for something in particular, like beef wellington, or souke goulash.

Also it could be used to provide hints when items in the back have passed their expiration date (about two years ago), particularly valuable with respect to spices.

Jack

Sounds a bit like the infamous 'IoT Fridge'

There perhaps needs to be a step-change in packaging first for this to start to work well. Packaging needs to have some sort of low cost RFID equivalent of the bar code (which contains best before information along with the product id).

There is then still the issue of how to keep track of items which aren't used completely in one go.

Really great idea for kitchen gadgets. An IoT Coffee Machine would be an amazing project. I have a Keurig K575. While it is a marvel of coffee technology, I really need an Alexa-Compatible Smart Coffee/Tea/Adult Beverage Machine.

Didn't someone want to do the fridge thing in UpcycleIt ?

I'm still struggling why everyone is so keen on linking their appliances to some form of shopping list, or meal suggestions.

Surely when you want to prepare a meal you already have an idea of what you trying to produce before you open the fridge.?

It seems we are trending towards a society that relies on answers from the internet in order to perform what used to be learned tasks.

I've found that if you learn a task, you retain the knowledge, whereas asking someone else for the answer gets you the answer, and next time you need to repeat it.

We seem to be relying more and more on our smartphones to remind us of this, feeding us live updates about things we probably don't care about, or are unlikely to use, and generally seperating us from the real world.

Mark

mcb1 That's exactly one train of thought on the 'Internet of Everything' front. The concept that by using 'big data' that your smart device will tell you information before you even need to ask for it.

I attended a presentation not so long ago by James Whittaker about this which was quite informative/entertaining. You can watch a recording of a very similar presentation here.

https://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/Gerver/Techdays-2015-Keynote-James-Whittaker-The-Internet-of-Everthing

(Skip forward into the video and the presentation is in English)

Some people will find it totally absurd having your smart device telling you that you need to go take a pee now and the nearest vacant WC/toilet/restroom is 10m away to the right, however for some people it could provide a better quality of life. The basics behind it are that

• big data knows where the facilities are located geographically
• your smart device knows where you are located now
• about an hour ago you just paid for a large coffee in a café
• historically your bodily functions reveal that it takes about an hour to go through your system
• your calendar schedule reveals that you are about to make a journey to a meeting
• etc...

I believe that the IoT fridge is making progress in the medical industry where it is being used to track very expensive pharmaceuticals where the cost of RFID tagging items is minimal compared to the cost of the items or the cost of an accident involving the use of the products.

Perhaps however the IoT fridge is just one step on from the connected vending machines, which people now take for granted.

Many people already use the front of the fridge as a magnetic noticeboard, so perhaps already a suitable choice for a 'digital mirror' type location. Internet deliveries of groceries are already on the increase. Join the dots and you have a fridge which can place and schedule the delivery of groceries without any intervention...

At the other end, supermarkets can be replaced by robotic warehouses, have better stock control, security, etc. ...

Another couple of food themed final projects from this year's Cornell ECE4760 course

Automated ice cream topper

https://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece4760/FinalProjects/f2017/kmv48_rp625/kmv48_rp625/kmv48_rp625/index.html

BeefBot steak cooker

https://people.ece.cornell.edu/land/courses/ece4760/FinalProjects/f2017/mh866_jtm293_kan54/mh866_jtm293_kan54/mh866_jtm2…