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A hallmark of smart kitchen design is a properly calibrated work triangle--that's your sink, your fridge, and your cooktop. The idea is to minimize the steps you need to take to move between these three areas to make you as efficient as possible.
In a small kitchen, creating an effective work triangle can be tricky. In my galley kitchen back in L.A., we couldn't open the fridge and the dishwasher at the same time, which is more of a problem than you'd think.
But what if you could move the legs of your triangle around? Why be locked into a cooktop that's fixed in one location? Why not give yourself the freedom and flexibility to cook right next to the sink one night, and near the open window the next?
Designers David Barry and Laurence Finnegan have come up with a concept design for Lotus, "a wireless cooking system that offers an elegant alternative to the conventional static hob." The various pieces in the set are designed for different cooking styles, such as grilling, wok-style sauteing, induction heating, and so on. Power comes from resonant induction via transmission coils in the counter tops and receiving coils in each piece. When the cooking is done, each piece can go straight to a sink full of water for simple cleanup.
The pieces are also cool to the touch, so you'll have far fewer kitchen safety issues than with a traditional hob. It's a cool concept, and one I'd like to see realized. According to designer David Barry, "the only new technology applied is the wireless power." Even though the system seems to be "powered by pixie dust...it is actually quite feasible," he says.
(Credit:
Inventables)
You know how annoying it is when you stick your bread in the toaster and accidentally set the dial too high, and when your toast finally pops up, it's darker than you want, or burned?
Granted, most of us over the age of, say, 6 are probably able to handle an ordinary toaster most of the time. But don't you want to watch your toast, well, toasting? Don't you want to see the magic happen?
This concept transparent glass toaster lets you do just that. Or, rather, it wants to let you do just that. Yeah, I was disappointed, too, when I read that the transparent heating glass technology does not currently heat the glass enough to toast bread. But the vendor thinks that a little R&D (and, I'm guessing, a lot of VC cash) could solve that problem.
At any rate, it looks cool.
(Credit:
World Design Market)
We've covered silly-slash-interesting concepts before, but I'm not really clear on how I should feel about this handheld portable toaster by Korean designer Been Kim. You apparently run it over your bread like a fancy butter knife and it toasts that side in your hand. An LCD readout on the back gradually tells you just how toasty your toast is getting.
The product, still a concept as far as we can tell, is apparently wireless and uses a cord-free charging system. We're not sure how practical this is or if it can replace a regular toaster, but it is a neat idea that we expect to see on the bus and street corners once it gets mass-produced. Design-wise, it looks fantastic.
The little butterflies on this portable toaster represent its heat strength.
(Credit: World Design Market)
Meet the iBasket.
(Credit: Guopeng Liang)It's not quite the washing-machine robot I've been waiting for, but it will have to do in the meantime. This finalist from the Electrolux Design Lab '08 contest is called the iBasket, a Wi-Fi-connected laundry hamper from the future. Guopeng Liang submitted the winning design.
The idea is to use this as a hamper, throwing your dirty clothes in as they accumulate. The iBasket then senses when the load is full and initiates the wash cycle. Since it is Wi-Fi-enabled, the concept washing machine can even alert you when the load is complete.
Made out of acrylic, recycled aluminum, and plastic, the iBasket certainly looks cool. Besides the unfortunate name, (please, please, change before production) the only other wish I would have for this device is for it to have legs.
Legs. You know, like a robot. It looks pretty cool with its clear, sleek design, but it would look even cooler if it had legs and automatically ran around the house looking for things to wash. Along with my robot vacuum cleaner and concept Bubble Dishwasher I wrote up the other day, my house would be a welcome haven for all those cleaning-obsessed robots.
(Via Born Rich)
Is there anything that sound waves cannot do? This concept ultrasonic bubble dishwasher isn't even the first ultrasonic dishwasher we've come across. But still, the fact that it's round, sleek, and bubble-shaped can only mean good things.
I can get a handle behind the theory of how I imagine this ultrasonic dishwasher works: shake the dirt loose with sound waves, and maybe filter small particles while letting the larger ones sink to the bottom. Drop it in the water, let it float around, presto-cleano, no more dirty dishes. It even has LED indicator lights to let you know when it's done.
So, as we keep seeing new ways of doing things, technology keeps dropping these round little cleaners on us every few years. We already have those vacuum cleaner robots, which happen to be kind of bubble-shaped, or at least roundish.
For a concept piece, this is right up there with all the concepts I imagine taking over in the not-too-distant future. I know I can think of all sorts of daily chores that need bubble ultrasonic cleaner things--round or not. I know my hamper could certainly use some sort of magic cleaning device. Between my whole house and all the chores that pile up, I, for one, will anxiously be waiting for a whole army of them.
via Cooking Gadgets
(Credit:
Noah Balmer)
Forget space, it seems as if the kitchen is the final frontier for computing. Companies have tried for years to create a computer that offers the right mix of design, functionality, and price so that people feel comfortable incorporating it into the household hub. (See also 3Com's Audrey, or even our recent post on Pandigital's kitchen TV.) As our Webware colleagues tend to roll their eyes at "yet another social network," so we kitchen geeks often scoff at yet another kitchen computer.
But even a jaded geek like me has to admit: the Kitchen Sync concept that recently received an International Housewares Association design award looks pretty darn cool. The device combines the best of finding recipes on the Web (collaboration, annotation, and search) with the best of physical cookbooks (portability and durability around liquids). You can use it to store and instantly annotate recipes you've found online, as well as plan menus and generate shopping lists. You can take it into the kitchen with you as you cook and use it to watch cooking videos or chat with other cooks via the Web. When it's not in use, the Kitchen Sync sits in its base charger, which is stored out of the way of kitchen spills.
What I like about this idea is that it is just a waterproof wireless peripheral--there are no moving parts, and the device doesn't try to be anything more than a durable, flexible thin client. What I don't like about this idea is that it's just an idea; the pessimist in me fears that actual execution of the concept would require high-cost or bulky materials that would detract from the device's simple usability. Nevertheless, the concept acts as a clear beacon of where kitchen computing should be going.
Via The Kitchn
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