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Technology

The Fridge of the Future 101

Posted by CmdrTaco from the waste-of-money dept.
oooooops hooked us up with linkage to amuse your brain on a friday. This is a new fridge That has an embedded computer that allows you to manipulate it all sorts of ways. Very strange.
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The Fridge of the Future More

The Fridge of the Future

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  • "Warning: rancid cheese, sector 9"

    "Unidentified fungal growth detected in chinese leftovers"

    :-)

  • Honey, we've run out of milk! (Score:3)

    by messman ( 32358 ) on Friday September 03, 1999 @05:18AM (#1705872)
    Dear Honey,

    I am sending you this email because I opened the
    fridge and noticed we've run out of milk. I tried
    to buy it from http://www.peapod.com/ but their
    server was down. Or maybe our browser in the
    fridge is not working since I stepped on the
    Ethernet cable when I was preparing coffee.
  • A very good site. Funny comments too.

    Why is your wife so concerned about the bats? If they eat the bugs, you won't have so big of a bug problem. Although from what I understand, Denver doesn't have that many bugs.

    Maybe the bats don't like the privacy invasion of the temp-gauges. :)
  • i'd rather have that startrek thingy that just makes it out of "matter"
  • 'Course not, they're all in his belfry :)

    And judging by his proud display of the "Freak of the Week" logo, Jim is fully aware of this!

    Seriously though, that has to be one of the most comprehensive narrow interest sites I have ever seen.

    Kudos and a straightjacket to Jim Buzbee!


  • Maybe that will clear up that error message I get when compiling Enlightenment. 'No beer in fridge' indeed!

    --
    QDMerge [rmci.net] 0.21!
  • Messy fridge? Spilt something in there? Leaking milk carton?

    Just run a Defrag!

    (of course, it'll restart every few seconds and you won't be able to get any food for 24 hours)

  • ....Which brings up the problem of porting Linux to it. I don't think this thing has any kind of a floppy drive, or a CDROM drive. As for input, the web site says it uses a "virtual keyboard" via the touchscreen. That being the case, this monolith has an embedded system, and runs either a proprietary OS, or Windows CE. With WinCE, it would be a matter of implementing LinuxCE once completed. The only problem with that is, it doesn't look like there is much of a desktop connectivity option. As far as I know, the only link to the outside world this has is a phone line.

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • This seems a stupid example of stuffing more and more features into a product, even when they are totally unsuited to it. What happened to 'do one thing and do it well'?

    Better to make a good flat-screen touch display. Then, people can stick them on their fridges, or anywhere else they want.
  • So someone figured out how to keep their overclocked PII from overheating...

    (What, it's a real refrigerator? My bad...)

    Jay (=
  • Shows how backwards our school REALLY is. We only have Pepsi machines.

    -Chris
    (Except for one machine in Psych that they use the profits from to buy gifts for departing grad students each year...)
  • I think it is a great idea. But when will it do everything for us, like fax a shopping list to our supermarket. That would be great.
  • Uh, Bats? My wife tells me that if I get any bats, the bat house will have to come down ;-)
  • Good luck scanning in the recipes from your 100k cookbooks.
    That should keep you busy for a while.
  • Didn't the Jetsons have a kitchen appliance where all they had to do was select the desired meal, opened the door and there it was? Hmm... a box with a fridge, oven, microwave, and toaster all networked...

    What will the future hold? Can I select a random meal ... i.e. Beijing Duck... and the refrigerator grep's the recipe comparing it to its contents, orders the missing contents via the web, has them delivered from the market by an automated delivery system... slices, dices, cooks and serves my hot 'authentic' meal all within a few minutes/hours...

    sheesh... it's almost here!
  • Sorry, I was hoping for a picture of it.
    Did I miss it?
    Like the links tho'.

  • Yeah, that's something that I need to put up, although it would be pretty un-interesting. It just looks like bottomless bird house with a cable coming out the bottom.
  • Picky, Picky :-)

  • Honey... (Score:4)

    by irrelevant ( 66554 ) on Friday September 03, 1999 @06:03AM (#1705895)
    Did you leave the fridge plugged into the net [dm-mm.com] all day?
  • Under price info in the FAQ it says they are considering non-traditional business models like displaying ads in return for a discount. How long until we are getting SPAMed with ads for SPAM?
  • When...and if these things take off want to learn how to update em...they have to have an OS or Firmware somewhere right? So someone is going to have to learn how to do the updates...thats what I want to do for a living.
  • A rather amusing quote from the site:

    The price of the Screenfridge will depend on several variables. When we go to market with this product we may try non-traditional business models such as lowering the price to consumers in return for displaying banners on their fridge doors.
    --

  • I love you! yay Beowulf comments!

    (childish, i realize, but oh hell..)
  • Of course, the best thing is to have no card at all - the cashier gives you a dirty look - then generally swipes a store card that gives you the discount anyway!

    They used to, but they don't anymore (where I shop).

    As for your efforts, I think they're pretty much useless. Beyond using a false name, you're not really helping yourself, and you're not really hurting the store much.

    All of this has to be done on a large scale to have an effect, and most people aren't bright enough to even realize that they're being tracked. This is what scares me the most, as I can already see everyone gradually losing their privacy.

    ---

  • Agreed. I'm a bit creeped out though by the information in the FAQ on this beast, under "How much will it cost?"

    When we go to market with this product we may try non-traditional business models such as lowering the price to consumers in return for displaying banners on their fridge doors.

    Uh... Thanks, but no thanks.

    More and more, we're being bombarded with advertising: "Try this, it'll change your life" or "Buy this, it'll make you sexy!" or "You've just GOT to have one of these!!" Can't turn on the TV, the radio, or fire up a web browser or email without being solicited by someone to "Click Here!" or "Buy now!!" For fsck's sake, enough already! I can't even get in my car and drive out to the country without seeing billboard after billboard beckoning me to buy more stuff!

    The last think I want to do is actually invite even more advertising into my home with one of these monsters... Ugh...

  • Ok some joker put a touch screen laptop in the door of a fridge... big hairy deal... Ohh that is sooo innovative! How about just a simple lcd with important info like ... the ice cube water filter needs replacing, your eggs are 698days old, the milk just climbed up from shelf 2 to shelf 3, and there is an un-identifyable quivering mass on a plate on the lower shelf. or a really innovative idea... the temperature in the fridge and freezer and the power the unit is using with a reccomendation for settings to save electricity. I couldnt care if I can web-browse from the door, and reading email on it is plain stupid! Whoever thought of that one makes a small salad bar look like a genius! Leave it to appliance manufacturers to make very stupid things... and yet I cannot buy any decent home automation equipment in the United states because all the good stuff is only sold in JAPAN!
  • I have 2 words for you.....

    Basic Stamps!

    you can do all this easily and with a gob of fun!
    Heck add a nice 4 line backlit LCD and other stuff..

    Just look up basic stamp on google or webcrawler.

    BTW: basic stamps take a little bit of electronic knowlege but what you can do is mind blowing!
  • And the on door Ice Dispenser? I mean seriously any fridge needs to have these two items to be the fridge of the future in my books. Cold filterd water whenever you want it and icecubes too. Damn thats what I look for when buying a fridge. Although the split door look would probably make the veiwing screen a little too small. Why not make it detachable so you can set it next to the stove so you can display your recipe right there while your cooking. Put it in a industrial safe washable container and your all set.

  • Not one that replaces a bunch of post-its stuck to the front of my current fridge.

    What good is it if it cannot even tell when the beer level is getting too low?
  • (setq RANT T) ; damn. too much LISP this week

    If you're so paranoid as to not let Safeway etc know that you buy a certain brand of chips every week, I suppose that you also don't:

    a) drive, since the state will get your address, and *gasp*, know if you speed (besides, get a ticket and the insurance company will get a whiff of what you do!),

    b) avoid online-anything, since credit card companies will know you buy stuff online, and what you buy, too! *gasp*. IP numbers are logged!

    c) never, ever use the phone (phone company knows who you called!). Includes modem calls, too.

    d) never go out, since there's cameras everywhere (and some in the streets, too).

    e) heavens don't get seriously ill/hurt/etc, lest the hospitals et al enter in what foods you eat, what you did to cause the accident (?), etc.

    Sure, maybe I may not apply for their cards, but certainly privacy shouldn't be one of the reasons. Ever shop for senior citizens? I'm sure they'll appreciate the effort. So who can say that you buy a bag of chips for yourself? Maybe you bought it for some old folks as a kind gesture.

    Perhaps if it goes into a great big database somewhere, try to have fun screwing it up, making it inconsistent.

    And like you said, you're free to shop elsewhere. Many ordinary (non-/.) people would probably prefer that the coupons they need are mailed to them. (Plus, many love coupons, and often buy enough of xxx because it's on sale to last them for the next 10 years. Penny pinching is important.)

    Oops. gotta cancel this message! Lest someone tracking my packets gets a whiff that I spent 10-15 minutes concocting this!

    (setq RANT nil)
  • Apparently, out are the days of the Post-It-Note, and in are the times for leaving E-Mail for family members on your friggin Refrigerator. (Or hell, have you ever seen a Post-It-Note that can record video?)

    Oh, and you can also use this nifty toy to send Internet E-Mail, and browse too. (Tell me, who the hell is going to stand in front of the refrigerator for 2 hours surfing the net when there is a computer in the next room? Don't even say "well, they might not HAVE a computer!" Please....If they have one of these things, they have a computer.)

    Well, we've moved in to the Computer/Kitchen appliance era. Now, instead of putting up your kid's artwork with magnets, you get to scan them in and make a slideshow.

    Don't try to use the magnets. You'll distort the screen.

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • There actually is a practical use for this. My wife and I both love to cook, and have about 100,000 cookbooks. If there was a machine study enough to keep in the kitchen and serve up recipes, that would be worth a lot.

    Better would be "show me dishes based on (list a few ingredients)" and it runs off and lists a variety of recipes that match it.
  • no there is a luxury, i don't even have a fridge, then again in this climate you don't need one of those noisy, electricty guzzling monstrosities.

    *bbrrrrrr*
  • i thought toaster would come first...

  • My favorite fridge option is:

    4) Food Management

    Sounds like an undergrade degree at a state university.

    Looks like we'll have to wait a few hours until their .ra box gets un /.'d ...
  • with some refrigerant right on the cpu

    Chuck
  • Wow, this was posted less than 5 minutes ago, and the server appears to be down already. Behold the power of Slashdot...

    I do remember reading something about like this quite a while back, though. Some guy in the UK had his fridge, front door and quite a bit of other stuff on the web. Had a barcode reader on the fridge, so he could keep a complete inventory. Kinda cool, but the privacy issues would really bug me... I don't want the world knowing how much of a slob I really am - "What, he had Jolt and Twinkies AGAIN? That's the 5th week in a row!" That sort of thing.

  • I wonder if you can overclock the computer considering it's already cool from being on the fridge.

    (I hope no one makes a comment about that clustering technique we all know and love)
  • First we got the computer hassock, now the screen fridge.

    Can the Xeon Toothbrush(tm) be far behind? ("More power to get to those nasty teeth in the back!")

    How about the Alpha Door(tm)? ("Not only can I open automatically, but I can finish the SETI work in a week or two.")

    The Linux Loveseat(tm)? ("Open source couch potato.")

    The list is endless.


  • This had to be said.. (Score:3)

    by BugMaster ChuckyD ( 18439 ) on Friday September 03, 1999 @04:30AM (#1705919)
    im sorry but I just can't resist. Such a fridge truly would be "a cold, calculating machine"
  • Yeah. I'm not disputing the practical uses for it. (god knows an onscreen Recipe system is a good idea, which is why I helped put a computer in my mother's kitchen.)

    I'm just ragging on the useless parts. :)

    -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

  • Surf the web standing in front of my fridge? Nope.
    Get and send e-mail? Not unless I'm sending a shopping list to my wife at work with what we're out of.
    Food management? For sure! I've thought about this before where it would be cool if there was an easy way to keep a list of what was in my fridge, and also keep a list of what I need on the next shopping trip. Sure, I can kind of do this with a dry-erase board - but the idea of running a a database and spreadsheet application over Linux on my refrigerator is an appealing idea!
    Now let me have recepies and cookbooks and nutritional data handy and I would find this very interesting.
    Again, sure you could do this with a laptop that doesn't have to be imbedded in the appliance, buteventually when imbedded devices are cheap and ubiquitous (sp?), why not have interesting application ideas already worked out and refined?

  • What Operating System it's going to have. I guess that they'll make their own, as some of the webTV appliances, but wouldn't it be cool if I can put a Linux OS there? I mean, the penguin would feel like home.
  • Their web site says they might show banner
    ads to help lower the cost.

    Pretty soon people will be giving away free fridges if you allow them to track what you eat. Talk about invasion of privacy.

    I'm I wierd? Because I don't spend any time looking at my fridge. I don't see why this would be useful, with ot without banner ads. Though it would be nice to hook up with a food delivery service so you can press a button the second you are out of ice cream. Still, I'd prefer to do that on a PC where the everything is nicer (faster, more resolution, a mouse, you can save receipts, etc).

  • This thing is great! Now my mom can e-mail me while she looks for a recipe for dinner.

  • The fridge in our computational neuroscience lab has had an IP address assigned to it for months. Why is this one "news"? :)

    -Chris
    (It's been allocated but certainly not utilized...)
  • would be sweeeet!
    (sirry, had to do it) :-D
  • Food management? For sure! I've thought about this before where it would be cool if there was an easy way to keep a list of what was in my fridge, and also keep a list of what I need on the next shopping trip.


    Bar codes. I didn't see anything about it on that web page, but if you're going to have a computer in the kitchen get a bar code reader. Just scan in the groceries when you unload them and scan the empty packages before you throw them out. It wouldn't take much knowledge to put together a little database application to track what you have and what you need. If you're persuasive you may even be able to get your local supermarket to give you a file listing all the bar codes and what product they're for.


    For stuff like produce that doesn't have bar codes, just code the app to have a menu and let you key in stuff with the numeric keypad. You probably only have a couple dozen un-bar coded things in your fridge at most.

  • I suggest Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst. [cmu.edu] (Search forward from the link for "Ravenhurst".)

  • does anyone else remember a Ray Bradbury short story on this? the guy in the story goes nuts due to the constant blabber of his "smart" appliances, with the exception (if I'm remembering this right) of the nice quiet in-sink-erator. I think I remember him stuffing the phone down the in-sink-erator and feeling a pang of guilt for his one silent appliance.

    if you know what I'm talking about can you tell me the name? I think it's about time to read that one again.

  • We don't have Safeway in my area, so I'm not familiar with the card in question, but what troubles me about things like that is how quickly the average person (dare I say "end user?") embraces anything that appears to make their life a little easier, regardless of the consequences - just look at Windows. Personally, I am somewhat frightened with the speed and enthusiasm with which they give up any personal freedoms they might have. This might sound paranoid and farfetched, but I can fully imagine a future where everyone is ruled by a vicious police state, and is perfectly happy with it because they can change the background for the toolbar in their browser, and their fridge can send out food orders to a central food distribution plant for approval and delivery. Creepy.
  • Bwaa-hahahahahhaaaaaaaa! ROTFLMOA!
  • Expect the AI vacuum cleaner running Electrosux RSN

  • This thing has a back door in the
    vegetable crisper drawer!

    The NSA can keep track of what you eat!

    Say, is that beer American?
    Why do you like whole milk? Don't you want to
    be healthy?

    Close the door and the light stays on! Because
    there is a RapidCam in the door!

    Bar code readers record exactly whats in there
    all the time!

    THEY know everything! You can't stop them!

    sleep tight
  • Tell me, who the hell is going to stand in front of the refrigerator for 2 hours surfing the net
    If they put the screen on the outside, no-one. But I for one have spent days on end accidentally defrosting the fridge by standing there with the door open wondering what to make for dinner. If I surfed for recipes at the same time, I could not only have used those hours productively, I might even end up eating something else.
    But damn, I love cheese sandwiches.
  • Yup, still around. And maybe it's time to revive the old vacuum cleaner commercial (Urban legend? Yes? No?):

    "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux"

    Nothing sucks like their marketing department.
  • That was at CMU [cmu.edu], not MIT. More here. [yahoo.com]
  • Well, about 15 people beat me to the beowulf, penguin, BSOD, and beer jokes...but what if some script kiddie, cracker, or mutant cheese virus fubared yer food management operation???

    "Security Notice! Beware the Fridgidaire Virus!!!!"

    That's almost worth turning into a sig, cept it took me months to settle on the one I've got. ;-)
  • It runs some M$ crap ... either Win9x or WinCE - if you look at the realaudio stream for "external communication" you can see the "internet exploiter" icon sitting there, briefly.

    The good news is that if it runs win9x i know SOMEONE can figure out how to install linux on it.

    Amazingly enough we haven't /.ed electrolux but I suspect we are overloading their realplayer server.
  • I think this would be a great group project. You can count me in, although I admit I not that electronically inclined. However, I am pretty good in Java. You should check Dallas Semiconductors [ibutton.com], they have a alpha product called TINI which looks like a good direction for the project.
  • Tell me, who the hell is going to stand in front of the refrigerator for 2 hours surfing the net when there is a computer in the next room? Don't even say "well, they might not HAVE a computer!" Please....If they have one of these things, they have a computer.

    So what aobut for those of us who cna't leave the computer long enough to go to the kitchen and cook food for ourselves? :)


  • I've got the only Linux Powered Bat House in the world.
    And it's on the Internet here [batbox.org]
  • And what about using those Safeway or "savings" cards. The whole purpose is to track your habits. I never got one because of privacy concerns. But they then raised the prices on everything pretty much forcing you to use one to get "discounts" so I simply stopped going there. Jolt rules!

  • What, I'm the first to ask?? (Score:3)

    by Enoch Root ( 57473 ) on Friday September 03, 1999 @04:46AM (#1705947)
    Yes, but can it run Linux? :)

    And such a beauty would surely become my "Open Source" of beer!

    "There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."

  • I saw a story on a similar future product from another company (GE?) earlier this year. Theirs was supposed to work as a networked client. The assumption was that you would set it up as an access point to your household network. As I recall there were references to the thought that it would run a "highly customizable OS, such as Linux" with an interface to a household server. The server would then provide access to all other services such as
    • E-mail
    • WWW Surfing
    • Recipe & menu wares
    • Any other software you can server over a wire.
    Looks like this is where household appliances are headed. Ultimately, you'll be able to have your refrigerator tell the oven how to cook the turkey and digitally page you on your family to call them to dinner.

    Set up an inventory controll package and you can even have it generate your shopping list.

    Build in speakers, microphone, and camera and you have a ready-made speaker-phone with video conferencing, and you can play Netradio while you work.

    D. Keith Higgs
    CWRU. Kelvin Smith Library

  • i've seen stranger stuff than this in the SF designer appliances stores and on places like homeportfolio.com. i wonder how much overlap there is between the crowd that will pay $3000 for a sheet ironer or $6000 for a wine chiller and the crowd that would pay big bux for this refrigerator...

    b
  • ...actually, it would be *cool*

    (even more sorry)
  • I saw a show on this kind of stuff before. Our worst fears - a house (let alone a fridge) that's running M$ Winblows? Who wants to risk running a fridge that's gonna BSOD on you when you're not home? Zero G http://mottnews.horde.net/zero-g/ [horde.net]
  • ...and you could overclock the hell out of them with the abundance of refrigerant available!
    (god i'm bored today!)
  • 20 years ago people were buying computers to store recipes... and now what is the latest hot thing in the computer industry? Recipes... :)

    Let's re-incarnate Visi-Calc or Electric Pencil into a toaster or something ... just because we can. :)

  • A Real Application (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Anyone with a moderately complicated home life will agree with me that the right application for something like this is calendaring and coordination. Where and when does everyone have to be picked up, dropped off, etc. What birthdays are coming up? When is the big party? What is the to-do list for the family?

    It has all of the right attributes:

    1. It is centrally located
    2. Everyone is going to look at it regularly
    3. It is at eye level
    4. It is a flat, vertical surface. It won't be buried in other clutter.
    I cannot see using it to monitor the contents of the refrigerator for reorders. Seems like a big waste of time to me. "Sniffing" for spoiled food could be good. Honestly, most of the applications that I can think of are really not refrigerator-related. It would be too hard to use the dishwasher-mounted model, though :-).

    Also, we could mount a camera on it, facing the kitchen, and see who really ate all of the leftovers.

    Jeff;

  • Looks like something out of a World's Fair from the 40's, or even sci-fi from that era. (Except it doesn't have fins) Here's my guess on the name of the OS. Electrolux's Unix: Electrolix, or Fridgix. I think this would have to be horrible nightmare. Advertising and marketing agencies could monitor everything you ate, and send you ads right on your refridgerator. Wouldn't that be great? You're about to make yourself a homemade taco, and a Taco Bell ad pops up, and the companion "Printigerator" spits out a coupon for $0.25 off a dozen tacos. Sounds like fun to me. They could send you junk mail without paying for paper, postage, or any of that! It just automatically prints on your factory configured Screen Fridge!
  • Wouldn't it be easier (and cheaper) to embed a $5 keyboard into the fridge, (at a nice typing angle) than to screw around with Yet Another Touch-Screen Keyboard? I would rather use Grafitti than one of those things, and a little trakball on the keyboard could eliminate the need for touch-screen altogether.

    Haven't they considered the ergonomics of typing on a vertical surface? Ick.
  • >because they can change the >background for the toolbar >in their browser Dude, we can't even do
    • that
    anymore!
    ________________________________
  • >because they can change the
    >background for the toolbar
    >in their browser

    Dude, we can't even do that anymore!

    (last post severely screwed)

    ________________________________
  • Actually a better way of doing it or a complement to the bar code reader would be voice recognition.
  • Having to put a keyboard in a fridge would probably be a waste of space. I'm not saying that having a touch pad is any better, but if anybody is going to have to do a serious amount of typing, they should probably hit their closest terminal.
  • I just go by an empty register, then swipe a few cards. I then go home, fill 'em out with various fictional info, then take them back to the store to get them activated. I have about ten of these things - none with real info on them (heck, I doubt the addresses even exist). I pick a random one every day I go to the store, then periodically get new ones (every six months or so). I also keep an eye out for other people's cards left laying around.

    Of course, the best thing is to have no card at all - the cashier gives you a dirty look - then generally swipes a store card that gives you the discount anyway!
  • I'm glad we haven't had the gratuitous SPAM jokes I was anticipating.

    D. Keith Higgs
    CWRU. Kelvin Smith Library
  • No longer must we search for cooling solutions for our PC's...gone are the days of 12 and 15 fans.

    We can use our computer refrigerator as an overclocking beast in our dens!

    And we can even put beer in it!

    Joe

  • It's gotta be said.... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    1) BeoFridge Clusters? 2) Will it run Linux? 3) If I run a web server on this thing and it gets /.ed, can I still access my beer and pizza? 4) Will it interface with a Tivo to suggest snack options during commerical breaks? 5) Automaticlly restock itself by ordering food from the web? Good thing it is Friday.
  • That's got to be the finest Linux Powered Bat House on the internet that I've ever seen!

    Just one small gripe, though:

    Arn't Bat Houses meant to have bats? ;-)
  • So, uh... have you actually got any bats in that bat house yet?
  • ...with the door *closed*!!

    There's a joke here, let me work it out. Kid standing in front of fridge...

    "Get off-line and get a snack! What, do you think I'm *made* of money?!"

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