3 ms·

Here's the best idea I can think of with this technology. Imagine taking a scan of your pantry, refrigerator, and/or laundry room. Then mark everything as what

Here's the best idea I can think of with this technology. Imagine taking a scan of your pantry, refrigerator, and/or laundry room. Then mark everything as what it is (e.g. "box of cheez-its", "milk", etc). Then come back a few days and do the scan again and it'll tell you what's missing. Once you return from shopping, scan again saying what the new items are (even if they aren't what was there). The software would probably need to recognize certain shapes so a slight rearrangement/movement doesn't change. It'd be like history/bookmarks/favorites for perishables!

lttlrck 13y ago
If it's already missing it needed replacing yesterday.
nivla 13y ago
Isn't it much easier to just look into your refrigerator/pantry and keep a mental track of things? There are a few pitfalls to your suggested method: * It takes a good amount of time scanning and cataloging everything and we are taking about a world where people don't find enough time to scribble down these things on a piece of paper. * What if you pulled out cereal box A and cereal box B but switched places when putting them back? * Since its scanning the boundary of objects, it won't be able to tell you if your Milk is empty, half empty or full. The one thing I could think of where this is useful is in scanning rooms/objects which are for sale. Like 3d scanning the bike you are going to sell, or a realtor using it to provide a virtual 3d tour of a house. However, Microsoft already did it with their Photosynth program and regular photos you take [1], so I am not sure how this is going to fair if it turns out to be expensive. [1] http://photosynth.net/ http://photosynth.net/
- maxerickson 13y ago
  I think the automated fridge/pantry will be sort of useless right up until the point where it becomes seamless. Then it will just be a nice convenience, not a big deal. But that describes huge swaths of technology, so go figure.
- kodablah 13y ago
  My idea was more of a replacement for a shopping list, not necessarily one's memory. To do diffs on physical environments may help situations where the contents of the diff matter. Maybe you don't have to catalog, maybe it can just show you what shape appears to be gone. Yes, there are many practicalities not ironed out, but I could see it being useful.
crucialfelix 13y ago
You don't need a 3D scan to analyze what products are there. Google Googles has done this very well for years and its 2D. The main tech you need here is image recognition, not 3D analysis. But image recognition on a 3D scan may be more accurate (and processor intensive). Possibly more error prone though.
User8712 13y ago
Speaking of food related ideas, when can a grocery store let me just pick up things, and walk out the door? Why can't I walk in a grocery store, swipe my credit card, then just fill up bags, and walk out? Or pause for a second at the door as it verifies my CC is good for that amount, then allow me to walk out. It's such a waste of time to get groceries, wait in line, unload them at the cashier, scan them all, pay for them, reload them again. Couple of ideas... 1. Some type of RFID tags built into all items, so the checkout can read all the prices when you step through the scanner. 2. You order everything online at home. When you get to the store, you swipe your CC, and your order is automatically picked in the back warehouse, and comes out out within a minute. Downside, this wouldn't work for certain produce, where you want to pick the bananas that look the best, or the green onions only if they're up to your freshness standard. However, it could be combined, so you order 95% of your groceries ahead of time, then just pickup the few extras and add them to your order waiting at checkout. This would mean 95% less time picking out items, faster checkout times since 95% of your items don't need to be scanned, or bagged.

lttlrck 13y ago

If it's already missing it needed replacing yesterday.

nivla 13y ago

Isn't it much easier to just look into your refrigerator/pantry and keep a mental track of things? There are a few pitfalls to your suggested method: * It takes a good amount of time scanning and cataloging everything and we are taking about a world where people don't find enough time to scribble down these things on a piece of paper. * What if you pulled out cereal box A and cereal box B but switched places when putting them back? * Since its scanning the boundary of objects, it won't be able to tell you if your Milk is empty, half empty or full. The one thing I could think of where this is useful is in scanning rooms/objects which are for sale. Like 3d scanning the bike you are going to sell, or a realtor using it to provide a virtual 3d tour of a house. However, Microsoft already did it with their Photosynth program and regular photos you take [1], so I am not sure how this is going to fair if it turns out to be expensive. [1] http://photosynth.net/ http://photosynth.net/

maxerickson 13y ago
I think the automated fridge/pantry will be sort of useless right up until the point where it becomes seamless. Then it will just be a nice convenience, not a big deal. But that describes huge swaths of technology, so go figure.
kodablah 13y ago
My idea was more of a replacement for a shopping list, not necessarily one's memory. To do diffs on physical environments may help situations where the contents of the diff matter. Maybe you don't have to catalog, maybe it can just show you what shape appears to be gone. Yes, there are many practicalities not ironed out, but I could see it being useful.

crucialfelix 13y ago

You don't need a 3D scan to analyze what products are there. Google Googles has done this very well for years and its 2D. The main tech you need here is image recognition, not 3D analysis. But image recognition on a 3D scan may be more accurate (and processor intensive). Possibly more error prone though.

User8712 13y ago

Speaking of food related ideas, when can a grocery store let me just pick up things, and walk out the door? Why can't I walk in a grocery store, swipe my credit card, then just fill up bags, and walk out? Or pause for a second at the door as it verifies my CC is good for that amount, then allow me to walk out. It's such a waste of time to get groceries, wait in line, unload them at the cashier, scan them all, pay for them, reload them again. Couple of ideas... 1. Some type of RFID tags built into all items, so the checkout can read all the prices when you step through the scanner. 2. You order everything online at home. When you get to the store, you swipe your CC, and your order is automatically picked in the back warehouse, and comes out out within a minute. Downside, this wouldn't work for certain produce, where you want to pick the bananas that look the best, or the green onions only if they're up to your freshness standard. However, it could be combined, so you order 95% of your groceries ahead of time, then just pickup the few extras and add them to your order waiting at checkout. This would mean 95% less time picking out items, faster checkout times since 95% of your items don't need to be scanned, or bagged.