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Opening Arguments

Kitchen helper

Man, I have to get me one of these:

When Ryder Ziola places a bell pepper on the kitchen work surface in front of him, the tabletop springs to life, suggesting recipes and other information. He can also use the work surface like a touch screen, selecting options with a finger--to see, for example, what ingredients might go well with his pepper. Ziola, a graduate student at the University of Washington, developed the system, dubbed Oasis, with researchers at Intel Labs Seattle led by senior scientist Beverly Harrison. Ziola is demonstrating Oasis at the ninth annual Intel Research Day, held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

"If you put, for example, a steak on the surface, it will recognize the steak and come up with recipe," says Ziola. "It may also come up with nutritional information." The camera can also track the motion of a person's hand, and discern when he is touching the surface or not, allowing the surface to be interactive.

A touch with a finger can bring up a timer, or summon up images or video to offer guidance on a particular step in the recipe. When two ingredients are placed on the surface together, Oasis suggests recipes that combine them. Any of the information displayed on the surface can be dismissed by sweeping a hand across the projected images.

There's a saying in the programming world that if you computerize a mess, you just get a faster mess. In the kitchen, there's not much difference in propping up a cookbook on a stand and trying to follow a recipe while you cook and continually checking the recipe (or even the cooking demonstration) on your laptop while you cook. But an interactive countertop, now there's a big leap forward.

Comments

Lewis Allen
Sat, 07/10/2010 - 5:15pm

Seriously? I think a gadget like this would bring out the Luddite in me.

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