IoT Invades the Kitchen

A session on

by Rick Merritt, SiliconValley Bureau Chief - EETimes, Feb. 03, 2015 – 

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- An emerging Silicon Valley style of cuisine is on the rise. It should come as no surprise that it has a scientific bent and uses sensors, microcontrollers, wireless networks and mobile apps. Consider this your invite to a high-tech cook off in July.

A handful of startups are putting a new spin on the old stereotype of the Internet refrigerator that sends you a text when you need to buy milk. This time around the goals are more diverse, useful and tasty.

"I'm sick of discussions dominated by the Internet refrigerator," said Jim Reich, a CTO of Palate Home Inc., a San Francisco startup making a connected precision grill for consumers. "Kitchen devices can have higher value than that because this is an area where you can make a big difference in people's lives," he said.

For its part, Palate Home is about to ship alpha units of its Palate Smart Grill, a device that aims to bring consumers the sous-vide experience offered in top restaurants. I had to look up sous vide to find out it's a method of slow cooking food often in sealed bags in relatively low temperature water baths, popularized in the 1960's.

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