The future of…

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The future of the kitchen

Feb 2001

Kitchens used to be the focus of family life, when people got together for dinner. Now of course, this is much less common as families increasingly fragment into groups of individuals, or grab a plate and sit in front of the TV. But kitchens are still where activity usually ends up at parties - at least the ones that I go to. Having ready access to food and drink is always a good point. And eating is still a social activity most of the time.

So it makes good sense to add communications facilities to the kitchen. When someone is away on business, being able to join with the family via a video link to a wall sized screen alongside the table might be attractive. Virtual dinner guests could join at other times - distant friends and family, virtual celebrity replicas or even synthetic personalities. Why not have Madonna over for dinner? Or Lara Croft? If the screen is big enough, they could be there large as life. Computer technology is still a little sluggish to render lifelike images of that size in real time and to give any sense of contact, but processing speed will catch up very fast. By the time such large screens are affordable, the processing will be available. The screen could also act as a virtual window, having a picnic in the woods or a beach barbie could become a regular kitchen event. All your friends could attend of course, linked in the virtual community via their own screens in their homes. Their avatars would be very realistic in this 2010 timeframe. Full 3D interaction between all the guests would be routine. And of course having such a display in the kitchen might reduce the incentive for the kids to leave and wander off to eat alone in the living room or bedroom.

Many other futuristic gadgets have been designed for the kitchen. A few internet fridges and microwaves already exist, with PCs built into them. They allow recipes to be called up, emails to be sent and received, grocery shopping, and of course download of MP3 music files. However, although it is easy to build such appliances, I suspect this is more than people really want of these appliances. There are much more appropriate ways of providing and using such functionality. A simple (and cheap) detachable message pad on a fridge door is likely to be more popular than a full PC that is obsolete 5 years before the rest of the fridge! And the message pad can be removed and read at the table while eating lunch. Most people already have CD players or TVs in the kitchen, so there is little need to reproduce this functionality in a PC.

In any case, household computing will be accessible from any room, while the actual processor boxes can be hidden under the stairs or at the back of a wardrobe. Simple voice interfaces with synthetic personalities and friendly faces on the screen, will allow recipes to be called up or demonstrations to be given. When they are, Bluetooth technology will enable the appliances to be controlled directly. Instead of manually programming the microwave for 2 minutes defrost, 3 minutes on full power, then 2 minutes on half power, this information could be in the tag on the meal packaging and could be used directly to control the microwave. The tags themselves can easily be read remotely using the same devices in the supermarket. A spinning magnetic field causes the tag to produce its own electromagnetic signature, which is read by a receiver device. In the supermarket, this allows a trolley load of goods to be scanned instantly, and in principle, using another such tag in the loyalty card, the customer's account could be billed automatically as they push the trolley out of the shop. A kitchen reader would allow easy inventory devices, ensuring a continually stocked cupboard and fridge, monitoring the use-by dates and enabling electronic recipes that can be made with what is available. The tags could also help recycling. Electronic waste bins have been prototyped with bar-code scanners that open the appropriate section for the waste. Tags would be even quicker and less vulnerable to custard or tomato sauce that would cause optical readers to fail. Recycling seems currently to be too much effort for most homes to bother with, so central recycling would be more beneficial for the environment. Automatic central sorting would certainly be much easier with tags.

Other kitchen appliances will communicate with each other and with the home computers. If a fault develops, the homeowner could be sent a diagnostic message that includes the contact details of the recommended repair service. Appliances may have some limited scope for directly accessing the manufacturer's own computers to assist in diagnosis and free software updates, though arranging for automatic purchase of a newer model will hopefully not be standard.

Many other services could be installed, though there are limits on the invasiveness that people can tolerate. Conversations could be recorded, with automated mediation in rows across the table. The wife could prove she had asked the husband to take out the trash. Diets could be monitored and enforced using combinations of the technologies above, linked to health monitoring features in the bathroom, such as the smart loo, and sensors in the home exercise suite. The microwave might simply refuse to heat a meal not permitted in the diet until you have done 10 miles on the exercise bike!

But technology is intended to improve our lives. With appropriate use, the future kitchen could once again be the focus of family life, with low stress, well-prepared meals around a table shared with distant friends.