"I love the kitchen. It shows how intelligence can invade our lives," said inventor Ted Selker, who is probably best known for creating the mini joystick found in computer keyboards, including IBM's ThinkPad, was the director of the MIT's Counter Intelligence
project.
The project, which ended following Selker's departure in the summer of '08,
challenged students to find technological approaches to functional
improvements in the kitchen. These were not the gadgets of late-night infomercials promising a knife that could slice through aluminum cans -- in just three easy payments. But devices described in research circles as having ambient intelligence, that is, they have sensors of all kinds and capitalize on ubiquitous computing.
But it's not just the research lab where these innovations are being developed. Companies such as Philips and GE have their own versions of futuristic kitchens, too. And if you're a chef or a wanna-be chef you long for the days when these environments and gadgets will be available at your local Home Depot.
1. Smart Spoon
Hailing from Selker's own Counter Intelligence project, the Smart Spoon is a gadget that tests for consistency, salinity, temperature and acidity, and sends the information to a computer through a cable connecting the two.
"It teaches you to cook," Selker says. He points out that it is especially useful for recipes that require a cook to monitor specifics, like the temperature of cooking chocolate.
2. Smart Packaging
Smart packaging encompasses a number of products designed to keep food fresh or properly cooked. Selker calls smart packaging one of the most transformational inventions on our list. For example, salad in a bag lasts several weeks, where in decades past it only lasted a fraction of the time. Replacing oxygen in the bag with nitrogen keeps food even longer, a system known as "modified-atmosphere packaging." Another packaging improvement comes by way of the frozen TV dinner. Silver cardboard trays are often found in frozen meals, like the microwave pizza dinner. These trays are designed to cook crisp food in the microwave.
3. The Anti-Griddle
The Anti-Griddle is a new spin on the tradition cook top. Instead of heating up sauces and purees, the Anti-Griddle quickly freezes them to achieve a solid outer layer with a creamy inside. The cook top reaches negative 30 degrees Fahrenheit for instantaneous frozen products.
The popularity of the Anti-Griddle came as a surprise to its inventor Philip Preston, owner of Polyscience, in Niles, Illinois. Preston's company sells constant temperature control equipment to scientists and chefs alike.
"I was just going to build two initially," he admits. The Anti-Griddle is now one of the products produced and sold through Polyscience. Preston notes the tremendous amount of applications for the product as its key to success, from baristas using the gadget for frozen espresso to bartenders serving frozen shots.
4. Talking Trivet
This oven mitt is another one-of-a-kind gadget created through MIT's Counter Intelligence project. Through the use of a thermoresistor, the oven mitt can sense the temperature of the food being cooked and the container it's being cooked in. The Talking Trivet will verbally warn cooks that the food "needs re-warming" or if it is "hot and ready to eat." The Talking Trivet also sets a timer for when the food will be cooked based on the temperature of the oven.
5. The Pacojet
Pacojet AG has created a gadget that turns any frozen ingredient into a sorbet-like texture in under a minute. After an ingredient is completely frozen, a high-speed blade moving at 2,000 rpm shaves a fine layer off the ingredient with each revolution. The blade shaves layers less than 2 microns thick (Xerox paper is around 100 microns thick). Together, the layers create a creamy moose texture.
6. Gastrovac
Through creating an artificial low pressure, oxygen-free environment, this gadget insures that the foods original texture and nutrient content remains intact. As the atmospheric pressure is restored, the liquid around the piece of food is absorbed in a sponge-like effect.
This gadget can also be used for pickling vegetables by adding brine and your desired foodstuff into the Gastrovac. Before pickling took nearly three weeks, "now it opens up a new realm of virtually instant pickling," said Preston, whose company makes a similar product.
7. VV Micro Evaporator
Though similar products are still generally found in labs, Heidolph Group's small size rotary allows you to bottle up your favorite flavors, literally. Place your desired ingredients in an evaporation flask. A bath of hot water will warm your concoction up with the heating capacity of up to 500 Watts, causing the liquid flavor from your ingredients to evaporate and collect. The result: a clear liquid that mimics the flavors in the evaporation flask.
8. Vacuum Packaging
As simple as vacuum packing sounds, you may be surprised at its uses in the kitchen. Vacuum packaging is part of a method of a cooking known as "sous-vide" in France. The food to be cooked is sealed in a bag and the oxygen is removed. The bag is placed in a thermal immersion circulator (our next gadget) and cooks at a constant temperature for an extended period of time, creating a flavorful and well-cooked end product.
9. Thermal Immersion Circulator
The thermal immersion circulator is the next part of the equation in "sous-vide" cooking. The circulator circulates a warm liquid at a constant temperature, allowing the food to be cooked slowly and evenly throughout. This technique may not be the quickest, but the end dishes prove to be worth the time.
"The circulator is something that has become popular [among chefs]," Selker notes. "You get a really moist end-product."
10. Augmented Reality Kitchen
Far less a gadget than an entire kitchen revolution, the Augmented Reality Kitchen is a place where "information and function are overlaid," says Selker.
As part of the Counter Intelligence project, there is only one of these kitchens "and it is at MIT," he notes.
Through a series of projectors, sensors and other forms of machine intelligence, this kitchen is aimed at re-designing the kitchen and re-defining its components. An image of the shelves of the refrigerator is projected onto the fridge door so cooks can tell what ingredients they have without opening it.
