Hooking up the TV to the Net doesn’t seem like much of a stretch. But connecting the fridge to the Web?
The Internet refrigerator, now available at widespread retailers like Best Buy, is the Trojan horse by which appliance makers hope to bring networking into the kitchen. Since the icebox is already a hub of household activity that runs 24 hours a day, it’s the most obvious choice for the home’s network hub, too. At least that’s what the fridge makers think.
The dryly named LG Internet refrigerator is one of the most imposing of the first models to hit the market. An $8,000 side-by-side colossus with a titanium finish, it has a tiltable 15-inch flat-panel tablet computer mounted to the front of its right-hand door, opposite the ice dispenser. There’s also a stylus for the screen (which reads handwriting), a video camera, a microphone, four speakers and, of course, a jack for a D.S.L. or cable modem. The tablet has built-in applications to track the fridge’s contents (entered with the stylus or through an on-screen keyboard). You can maintain a shopping list on screen and transmit it to an e-grocer like Peapod when it’s time for delivery. With the camera, you can leave video messages for other family members on the door instead of Post-its, or engage in a Webcam chat session. If you’re just bored, you can surf the Web, watch streaming video or listen to MP3’s.
The great shortcoming of the LG fridge is that the camera can’t be turned inward to see what’s inside “” you have to rely on the manually entered list (or open the door). But there’s an even smarter technology down the road: Merloni, an Italian appliance maker, has created a fridge that can read the tiny wireless smart tags, or radio-frequency identification chips, that food makers plan to embed in their packaging in coming years. RFID’s enable companies to track inventory in warehouses and on store shelves, but they could just as well be put to use at home. If the kids finish the last of the milk while you’re at the office, the Merloni fridge could note the missing package and send you a text message.
Paul Boutin writes on technology for Slate, Wired and other publications.