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It'd be great if the refrigerator could track the expiration dates of the items inside using RFID, then notify you if anything was getting old. For made at hom
by jodoherty 11y ago
It'd be great if the refrigerator could track the expiration dates of the items inside using RFID, then notify you if anything was getting old.
For made at home items and non-tagged items, they could also make RFID stickies, where you scan them when you put the item in the fridge, give it a name or take a snapshot with the built-in camera, set your own expiration date, and it tracks how long it's been in there.
If you focused enough on usability, you could make the whole thing feel streamlined and natural. The fridge itself could dispense the RFID tags, and you could just reuse them by reloading it with the old ones, for example.
- ghaff 11y agoPlease tell me that was a clever sarcastic comment about the whole smart refrigerator idea. Sorry but obsessive compulsive tracking of what exactly is in the refrigerator isn't really a problem for people who are already exacting about such things. Most of us fall more into the camp of "Does it still smell OK"? That's the messy analog reality of so many things around the house that supposed consumer IoT solutions mostly ignore.
- jodoherty 11y agoNope, but then my sense of smell has been broken for years, so I don't take it for granted that you can just sniff things. My main concern was finding a way to keep the things that end up in the back of the fridge from staying there for weeks and weeks. I waste more food than I care to because I'm the opposite of what you're attacking me for being -- I'm the guy that puts stuff away and forgets about it the next time I go to eat. That, and it's hard to coordinate with my fiancee on meals when she works midnights. Anyway, I'm sorry for offending you with my ideas. I just think a smart fridge could actually be handy for wasting less food without having to be obsessive compulsive about tracking and without being a great judge of freshness with my nose. You just glance at the fridge and pick out things to eat before they go bad.
- mturmon 11y agoMy printer does this with printer cartridges, and I wish I could make it stop. Can I just print until it looks funny and replace it then?
- Animats 11y agoConsider a phone app which reads product barcodes and orders more of the same thing. You shop by pointing your phone at the empty container and telling it how many. Smarter developers might also have it recognize common fruits and vegetables. That might be useful. I'm surprised Amazon doesn't already have such a device. They have a voice input thing and a push to buy thing. A kitchen appliance which looks and works like a price gun is a logical next step.
- mturmon 11y agoYes, that actually sounds useful. One of the problems with solutions like the omniscient fridge and printer is that they sound helpful but are not helpful in practice. They could benefit from testing. Also, a structural issue: the incentives of the manufacturer (buy more stuff) are not aligned with my incentives (eliminate routine tasks).