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A Barcode Driven Kitchen and Grocery List?
Crazy Brian asks: "I have envisioned, for some time now, having a 3Com Audrey with a barcode scanner in my kitchen, where I can scan in items as I put them away, then scan them again as I use them. Barcode information would be stored on my MySQL server, and an inventory would be updated. I could then generate a shopping list, or link it to a database of recipes, to find out what I can have for dinner tonight. The closest thing I have found is the ShopWizard from Symbol, which only runs under Windows. Is there anything out there for Linux? I hope it can use the upcdatabase to find unknown barcodes. Is there any group interest in creating something like this, assuming nothing already exists?" Icepick's Trashbin is a simple application built on this concept, but wouldn't knowing exactly what is in your cabinets and having a ready-made grocery list be a useful feature for any kitchen?
The appliance that automagically keeps track of your groceries, makes lists of what's needed from the store, even goes and gets them from the store while you are at work - already exists.
It's called a wife.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
well, something.
but you don't seem to realize that it actually is a lot of extra hassle to scan things when you put them in and when you take them out, also you can't know if the juice is almost empty or whatever.
so unless you're running a biiiig kitchen at some facility it doesn't make that much sense, actually.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
the kitchen?
I have thought about this system myself as well. You can get cards for many PDAs that will scan barcodes, so that way you can "cross" things off at the supermarket(though I would expect some strange looks). Hell, if you like writing code, you could even have the software plan out your shopping, have it locate the aisles everything is in and tell you where to go.
Monstar L
People have been talking about this since the Apple II. The problem is, that given that:
1) The small size of most home kitchens means that it's relatively easy to keep track of that list in your head. I can tell you without looking that I have pinto beans and lemon juice, but need to buy butter.
2) Home kitchen inventories don't need to be managed as tightly as a Wal-Mart. Unless you're insanely well-organized, there is no cost of capital or opportunity cost to keeping non-perishables around a little longer until you need them.
So the trouble of maintaining a kitchen database, checking every can in and out, makes it more work than just keeping a well-stocked kitchen and buying special items (rack of lamb, sassafras root) when you need them.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Even if technology were to that point, I don't think Slashdot users should be asked about biological engineering... :)
Goo goo g'joob.
Nice troll.
:)
You can use innodb tables to get referential integrity, and why wouldn't you be able to normalize the data? MySQL has had that ability for ages.
And you are already a subscriber HERE, where they use MySQL, so clearly you are willing to pay for services driven by mysql.
GPL'd web-based tradewars themed space game
http://www.cedarnet.org/smartware/Hardware/PantryP od/
It even uses a :CueCat!
I think you're missing my point. Allow me to illustrate, with an old Calvin & Hobbes comic I still have taped to my refrigerator. Calvin's dad is ranting about the frantic pace of modern life, and how we have all sorts of labor-saving machines that are supposed to make life easier, but instead, just make it faster paced, and more stressful. In the final frame, Calvin is holding a package of frozen food, screaming "SIX MINUTES in a microwave? I don't have TIME for this!"
If I had 15-20 extra minutes to spend every time I go to the store, I'd probably be better off spending it cooking or cleaning the kitchen. If I had a hundred bucks to spend on a bar code printer, I'd probably be better off spending it on better quality food. This whole scenario is a classic example of "goal displacement," the goal of cooking is to provide a healthy diet of tasty food, it's not an inventory management problem or a time management problem. Peoples' diets are getting worse because they're treating cooking like a trip to a gas station, a task that must be taken care of and gotten out of the way. Slow down and smell the coffee (preferably not instant coffee). Food is a pleasurable thing, cooking is fun, not a chore to be turned into another computer algorithm. Some things don't benefit from computerization.
This is something my friend is very interesed in.
:(
It's quite hard for a blind person to tell eg "Catfood" vs "baked beans" or "Chicken noodles" vs "Extra-hot Thai noodles". The plan was that his wife would scan each product as she puts them away and record a short audio description. Verne can then scan cans and packets while she's at work and sort out a non-spicy, non-catfood lunch for himself.
I wrote a script for this, but then the computer had an accident so I'm going to have to write it all over again
455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
Nothing beats a cuecat for cheap barcode scanners. PS2 and USB are available, and no stupid driver funkiness.
Also consider a scanner tasked only to scan receipts. I've been considering something myself, perhaps a small business card scanner would work. As you're putting away the groceries, stick the receipt in there, and a custom script files, OCRs, whatevers it. Maybe also noting the day and time. It could automatically pop up a warning on day 8 that "If the half gallon of milk isn't finished today, it may be time to finish it off or toss it." or somesuch. Or even auto-generate the grocery list as it decides the items are gone, or spoiled.
And as much as I hate RFID, you gotta admit, for at least this one application, it would be cool.
I have often thought of this too. Except in my version it combines a recipe database, an inventory database, and a barcode database.
Besides the obvious maintenance of a database of items in your cupboard, it maintains a database of all items in your house. For those of us who have home-owners/renters insurance, this database is invaluable when it comes to loss replacement claims.
But the number one reason I want to get this implemented is that often my wife and I have no idea what to fix for dinner, even though we have a pantry full of choices. I have also seen once or twice when fresh items go bad (like potatoes, or apples) because they were behind something else.
The system I envision ties in recipes with the food inventory so that I can simply say "show me what I can fix for dinner", and it would go through the database of items on hand, and suggest recipes containing those items. They would be catagorized of course so that I could say something like "I'm in the mood for italian tonight, show me what italian dishes I can fix." and the system would oblige me.
With the inventory system, it can also tell me that I have items that need to be used sooner rather than later, and suggest items to fix containing the goods that are about to expire.
Of course right now, my wife makes up a 'two-week menu' and we shop according to what is needed on that menu, but we generally have plenty of staple items on hand. This system would allow us to reduce the number of times we buy cream-of-mushroom soup. (we must have about 20 of those cans in the cupboard now.) It would also allow us to buy "only what we need" when we go.
I'm bad at meal planning. I'm bad at knowing what I've got. I've considered something like what this guy proposes -- basically a program that knows a bunch of healthy recipies and a TiVo like thumbs up / thumbs down for future reference system. Such a system could quickly learn what I like and don't and tell me what minimum foodstuffs to buy to make healthy meals for the next week.
The last time I was left to my own devices, I ate pasta, italian sausage and maranara sauce for 2 weeks straight. I broke the monotony with a single serving of Weight Watchers frozen pizza and then went back to the pasta. I like healthy foods, make no mistake. I just can't pick something out when I have to and will fall back on my favorites.
Automated systems can take all the joy out of life. But they can replace mundane parts of our lives that we don't manage well anyway and manage them better while leaving us time to do the things we want.
Is it me, or is MythTV becoming the new Emacs? It's like a Swiss Army knife with all the crap being shoehorned into it :)
---- It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again. It does this whenever it's told.
As others have pointed out, it seems more trouble than its worth and would be quicker to just write a list by hand. What would be kinda cool though if someone knocked up something the guy was asking for and managed to interface it with one of the many online grocery services, scan the items, click a button and the computer goes and restocks your kitchen for you.
some of them deserve it. really.
I used to raise animals for my 4-H projects. I raised swine, chicken, heifers, steers, lambs... you name it. And i won quite a few prizes at the fair.
One year I was raising a steer named Bobby. Bobby was a bad bad animal. He was being raised on a nice farm, with tender loving care, and really good food, yet he showed nothing but malice toward everyone. Basically everybody got kicked, head butted (hard enough to send a grown 200lb man over a fence), and hurt. In the show ring he kicked me hard enough that people heard a cracking sound and thought I had broken some bones.
But when it was all over, man was he tasty. I've never ever had steaks that tasted soo good.
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