The kitchen is no longer just for cooking.
It’s a place for family and friends to get together. Now, due to the advances and future of technology, kitchens are getting smarter. Food preparation is becoming secondary and people are spending less and less time in the kitchen actually cooking. When food preparation becomes secondary the kitchen will transform into an interactive area to work, play and socialize, as well as a place to eat.
After looking for kitchen automation, I wanted to share an interesting article written by Michael J. Berens where he states “kitchens have been expanding while the traditional living or dining room has been shrinking or disappearing altogether.” He describes the relationships that are continuously being developed between appliance manufacturers and technology innovators to design and create kitchen products that will minimize human involvement in meal preparation. Does that sound amazing to you? Imagine having more time with your family in the evening while automating some mundane kitchen tasks while getting dinner on the table?
A couple of innovative smart kitchen brands I’m personally excited about are:
Panasonic
Panasonic has strengthened its smart home equipment business in recent years, offers a smart, cloud-connected kitchen, where appliances share interlinked information on food, recipes, and condition of ingredients. The smart kitchen has digital controls replaced with videos and touchscreens to suggest a menu based on information on the contents of the refrigerator and can warn about products that are about to go bad.
The highlight of the showcase was a beautiful dining table seating 6 to 8 guests. When you first sit down you believe it is a traditional dining table, you quickly realize that embedded in the table is the new concept of cooking. All you have to do is to put the plate with your uncooked food on the table and put a special cover over it, and it starts cooking. When the food is cooked to perfection you remove the cover and eat hot at the table.
Whirlpool
Another company that’s taking the kitchen into the future is Whirlpool, which is introducing the interactive kitchen of the future. You will not need to look for recipes, they will be presented to you on an interactive backsplash with a connected cooktop. When you put an item on the counter the backsplash is reading the ingredient and a ‘smart Chef’ will suggest different recipes using images and voice recognition. It will check inventory in your refrigerator and the “in sink” dishwasher will even do your dishes! How cool is that? At the January 2017 CES show, Whirlpool and Amazon announced a partnership that will bring Alexa functionality to a range of Whirlpool Wi-Fi-enabled appliances including ovens, refrigerators, (and washing machines). With Whirlpool’s voice functionality with its Wi-Fi-connected ovens, fridges, and washing machines, Amazon’s Alexa allows a very important question to be asked such as “Alexa, are the dishes in the dishwasher done?”
It’s obvious that tomorrow’s kitchens are getting smarter, and becoming way more fun! Now, what will it take for us to begin experiencing them? Have you seen any new kitchen products that you’d love to have? Share them with us here.
