Everything including the kitchen sink

When Jeckle was but a wee munchkin, his teacher asked his class what they wanted to be when they grew up. Jeckle said he wanted to build robots so “Mum had help”.

It would seem technology isn’t waiting for Jeckle to grow up.

The latest offerings from companies such as LG and Samsung are moving us towards automated kitchens:

Kohler have invented voice activated taps. Put your jug in the sink, ask the tap to fill it with a litre of hot or cold water and presto, it does.

What about LG’s oven that includes some of the latest must-have gadgetry, such as an air fryer and sous vide function, but with controls that can be managed by voice, “preheat oven to 180’C”. Or by your smartphone, scanning the barcode of your Hawaiian pizza which sends the cooking instructions to your oven.

Now, the futuristic appliances I’ve already mentioned might not seem that far-fetched, but wait until you meat Samsung’s Bot Handy. This really is a robot!

A large robot with a single, multi-jointed arm and hand can open your dishwasher and carefully put your items away. It uses artificial intelligence and object recognition to apply the safest amount of sensitivity to each grip ensuring it won’t chip the good plates. And yes, it can pour you another glass of Chardonnay so you don’t need to beg your spouse to do it for you.

From news.com.au

Samsung have a whole range of forward thinking smart AI designs which you can read about here.

Of course, the floor might need a clean as well. We all know there have been robotic vaccum cleaners around for a number of years now, but the ones of the future will be activated by voice to clean the room and even mop at the same time. For stubborn grime like sauce, the new vacuum and mopping robots will scrub on the spot to ensure it is clean before moving on.

Of course, these futuristic appliances extend to other parts of the house as well (automated laundry anyone?).

I wonder how effective they will be? But the thought of not having to spend hours cleaning does sound attractive.

Would you like an automated kitchen?

12 comments on “Everything including the kitchen sink

  1. I saw the commercial for the voice activated faucet, and I wonder how well that works, considering that if you want to fill something, you still have to get up to put the thing you want filled there. But then again, how many devices did we think were silly and they turned out to be stuff we use all the time now?

    • Yep, who would have thought 25 years ago that we would all need to be connected to a phone? To be honest, while it is handy at times, I do miss the “olden days” when people left messages and you didn’t have to be so reachable.

  2. I’m old enough to remember when computers filled rooms, when I thought how nice it would be if we could buy films like records, when a boy in my class had a cassette player, which he let a group of us use to record something for English, and we were so impressed…

    How thrilled I would have been to learn that one day I would be able to watch films and read books, take photos and do my writing on a little computer I could carry with me! And that I would be able to see family and friends on that computer, just like in Star Trek!

    I do recommend Michael Pryor’s children’s book Machine Wars, in which a boy finds himself on the run after something his mother invented makes everything with an Internet connection try to kill him, including photocopiers and fridges!

    • I’m old enough to remember that, too, Sue. My Dad was the computer department manager at an engineering firm, and his computer filled the room and took the cards that you punched holes into. But it did mean we were the first family I knew to get a desktop computer (no hard drive – you had to load about 8 floppies in to get it booted, lol).

  3. Not ready for that yet, The Internet-of-things, as it’s called, is way too hackable so far!

    • I agree, Jacqui. But unfortunately it seems they are coming whether we want them or not. I don’t think it’s easy to buy a new car these days which doesn’t have full reliance on a computer.

  4. Thank you, no. I like having a dumb house. Part of the reason is that I have absolutely no faith in new appliances.

    Our old Maytag fridge died a long, slow death. It needed about a hundred bucks a year for life support, but it at least had metal hinges and glass shelves.

    The new Whirlpool has plastic hinges, door, shelves and so on.

    I looked at a new washer and dryer and found that they all have plastic frames holding them together. They also all have computers that are too close to water for me.

    Maybe next time I’ll get into hackers and people watching you from hidden cameras.

  5. I guess I’m not the kind that can see a lot of use to the Internet of Things. Our HVAC can connect to the wi-fi network at home and I can raise or lower the temperature from my phone, but we had to replace the thermostat and never got it working with the network, and SWMBO has ordered me not to mess with it…

    • Oh, that’s exactly one of the reasons I would rather not be connected to me fridge. Just another thing that has the equivalent of the blue screen of death.

  6. This makes me think of…I guess it was Wall-e, where the future humans don’t have to do anything for themselves and float around on recliner chairs…? There are some tasks I would like to assign to a machine, but I think I can still fill up my own water jug 🙂 I suppose the internet of things has its pros and cons.

    • Haha, I hadn’t thought of Wall-e (you had it right) but yes! What will we do if machines do it all for us. Although I would like a little more free time in my day (actually, any free time would be great).

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