Gadget Tree: The Smart Kitchen Now

March19

George Jetson’s “smart” kitchen is finally here.

You remember George, don’t you? The Saturday morning cartoon character whose housekeeper, Rosie, would put a block into an oven and, seconds later, a fully cooked meal would pop out?

Smart Kitchen-Rosie from the Jetsons

copyright Hanna-Barbera

It’s not quite that easy yet, but we’re well on our way to a Jetson’s-like smart kitchen.

We’ve been able to connect the care and maintenance of our homes through the Internet for a few years now… thermostats, lights, sprinklers, security systems, televisions, etc. But now, even our small, everyday kitchen appliances can be programed and operated from our phones or tablets.

Here’s what I found at the recent International Home and Housewares Show:

Before you start cooking, you’ll need the Orange Chef Company’s Prep Pad, the smart kitchen food scale that connects over Bluetooth to your iPad. It uses an app to show you the nutrition in the food based on weight, not labels. Here’s a demo:

 

The app-enabled iDevices Kitchen Thermometerlets you program the cooking time and temperature on your smart device and then monitors the temperature of whatever you’re preparing. The thermometer sends that info via Bluetooth to your smartphone or tablet as it cooks and when it’s ready. iDevices has a whole range of thermometers… I’ll tell you about those in the coming months.

The Smart Kitchen: iDevices Kitchen Thermometer

The Crock-Pot is probably one of the first programmable kitchen appliances. Now, no matter where you are, you can turn on the Crock-Pot and adjust the programmable cook time and temperature from your smart phone or tablet.

Crock Pot

Finished cooking… but forgot to sweep the kitchen floor? Send a message to Ecovacs Robotics’ Deebot D9 and it will clean your kitchen floors… or all of the floors in your house for that matter. It even returns to the charging dock and empties its own bin when it’s through cleaning!

The Ecovacs Deetbot D9

 

But by far, the best “smart” device I saw at the show was the Famibot… which really reminded me of Rosie (the Jetson’s housekeeper).

Smart Kitchen Ecovacs Famibot

Ecovac’s Famibot is an air purifier, entertainment center, security guard and home network connector. This little guy can even roam around your house and take photos and videos inside and send it to your phone or tablet.

Having a smart home seems like it would be really cool… but with all the bad guys out there, what if they find a way to reprogram my pot roast?

 

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Hi…
I’m Christina Chavez

I was a TV journalist for many years, but with a house full of kids I decided to come off the road, go to culinary school and follow my passion for cooking. Mama’s High Strung is all about food… everything from creative recipe ideas to some really cool kitchen gadgets and cooking tips. I live in Chicago, but I love to travel and write about my food discoveries! You can reach me by email: mamashighstrung@gmail.com