Swedish appliance maker Electrolux is developing a system that will let people use their mobile phones to see the inside their refrigerators.
The company said this week that it has built the so-called Food Manager System, which is currently in the prototype stage, but could become a commercial product in the months ahead if early market research proves positive.
The system consists primarily of an Internet-connected digital camera that will take a series of photographs of the inside of a refrigerator each time the appliance’s door is closed. The pictures are then uploaded to a server, where users can access them over any Web-connected computer or a WAP-enabled mobile phone.
The idea behind the system is to allow consumers who are out shopping, or who may head to the supermarket on the way home from work, to have a better idea of what they need to buy.
“One of the needs of customers is to know what’s inside their fridge when they are not at home,” said Claudio Cenedese, manager primary electronics at Electolux’s Core Technologies and Innovation. “This is something that can help solve that problem.”
Cenedese acknowledged that other technologies had already been launched to help people remember what is in their fridge; most have not succeeded but Cenedese said this was because many such tools were too complicated or required too much work on the part of the user. He said the simplicity of the Electrolux system, which records images of cold food automatically, meant that the prototype had a better shot at success. He also claimed that accessing the photos on-line or over a mobile device will be extremely simple.
The Electrolux engineer admitted that there are problems with the system, most notably the trouble users might have seeing everything if their refrigerator is full. “But something is better than nothing,” he said, adding that the company is still looking to work out a few of the bugs in the prototype. Currently, it is unclear whether the Food Manager System will be sold as an in-built accessory in Electrolux fridges, or whether the device will be sold separately.
But if the product does become commercially available soon, it will hit a marketplace that is increasingly littered with “smart appliances.” Over the last two years a flurry of announcements from most of the world’s biggest appliance makers have seen a number of products hit the high street such as washing machines, fridges and ovens that automatically contact repair people when broken or damaged. Some more advanced clothes washers and dryers can download specific washing instructions, while fridges and microwave ovens can access databases of cooking suggestions
Earlier this year, for example, Italian appliance maker Merloni said it would capitalise on the emerging trend that has seen clothes makers include RF (radio frequency) tags in clothing. Since RF tags can include washing instructions that can be transmitted wirelessly, Merloni said it was looking to build a washing machine that could read the instructions on the tags and automatically select the appropriate washing cycle.
Merloni is also looking to make sure its refrigerators can read RF tags on food products, to alert users as to whether a product has, or is about to go off.
FromElectric News
