Fine Homebuilding – January 2013

Kitchens By Gedney, Inc.

21st Century Smart Kitchens
21st Century Smart Kitchens
Technology is changing homes for the better. Our post this week takes a look at smart products for the kitchen and elsewhere that can make day-to-day tasks easier and your home more cost-effective and fun to live in...we hope.

Smart refrigerators offer more than the ability to keep food fresh. Technologically advanced fridges keep track of your grocery lists, let you order food online, leave notes for family members, watch videos, listen to music and look up and follow recipes. Smart refrigerators can automatically adjust temperature based on the number of times you open and close the door, thus preserving food longer and saving energy.

Smart ovens and ranges help you make better meals at less cost. Smart ovens adjust cooking time and temperature based on desired level of doneness and the type of pan that you use. You can activate your oven and set the cooking temperature from your smart phone so your meal will be ready when you pull up to your home. Several smart ovens respond to voice commands – if your hands are covered in dough you can adjust your oven's temperature hands free. Smart ovens also enable you to specify a cooking sequence such as bake for an hour, broil for five minutes or keep warm for 10 minutes. Some models also allow you to watch TV and access the Internet while you're are cooking.

Smart dishwashers allow you to use your smart phone to turn the dishwasher on and off remotely, determine how much energy you are using and receive alerts if the appliance is not functioning properly. Additionally, working with other applications, smart dishwashers will automatically order detergent refills when they are needed and can integrate with a smart thermostat to adjust temperate for the heat the dishwasher may generate. How cool is that?

Smart lighting allows you to use your smart phone to create different ambiances by choosing color, tone and amount of light output. You can also instruct your smart light bulbs to flash every time you receive a new email or text.

Amazon's Echo is a voice activated smart home assistant that will turn on your coffee maker so a cup is ready when you are, provide the latest news headlines, play your favorite music or podcast, turn lights on and off and serve as your in-home, digital concierge.

Want to eliminate the burden of calorie counting? There's a Bluetooth and WiFi enabled dinner plate equipped with mini cameras and weight sensors that helps you with proportions and sends alerts if you served yourself too much. With an accompanying app, you can analyze and keep track of every meal and it connects to FitBit. In the same vein, a smart fork helps you adjust your eating habits by measuring how many mouthfuls of food you take and buzzes and flashes if you are eating too quickly. A smart juicer tracks the ingredients that you use, nutrients that you consume and where the products that you are juicing were grown.

Smart decanters can gather information about different winemakers and allow you to accelerate the maturing process of your favorite wine by adding aeration.

There's a smart frying pan that can indicate its own cooking temperature.

There is an egg tracker that when you scan over eggs in the fridge, it tells you which eggs are the oldest. (Of course you could just use the tried and true "float or sink" method).

The Interneting of everything has made its way into the kitchen in a big way. Some of this stuff makes sense and some may be over the top gadgets. However it is an indication of what's out there now and one can only imagine the kitchen of the future. ... See MoreSee Less

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