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RFID Cookware
HaggiZ writes "Vitacraft are claiming to have what they call RFIQin Robotic Cookware (unfortunate name). It's basically pots and pans that you can place RFID cooking cards in the handle with. The communicate with the induction stove 16 times a second to adjust the cooking when required. Neat idea, although I'm not sure anything I cook needs to have it's temperature reviewed or adjusted every 0.06 of a second." For all the evil uses of RFID that have been floated over the years, it's nice to see that someone is going to finally make it so I stop burning my lunch.
I assumed it was for cooking RFID to kill it. Just like if I saw "RFID Aluminum hat" here, I'd assume it was to block it, not use it to monitor head heat.
Wouldn't they... you know, melt?
One more step to being able to cook a meal without leaving the desk.
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For the millionth time, it's = contraction of 'it is'. its=posessive of it.
What's next, an RFID fork that communicates with your plate to pick up just the right amount of food?
it's nice to see that someone is going to finally make it so I stop burning my lunch.
Well, no, it'll just help regulate the temperature more accurately. It's still up to you to remember to stop playing doom 3 and go rescue your omlette from becoming a black crunchy lump.
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Wouldn't you melt the chip? It _is_ metal, after all. (I learned the hard way with a Pop-Tart wrapper.)
The people who would cook by plugging a card into a pot would not be using a pot in the first place. They'd be using a microwave.
The people who cook with pots and pans already know how to cook so they won't spend money on this. Gas stoves are much better for cooking anyway.
Which leaves the only market being people with too much money, a love for new toys and no culinary skills.
Non-Coralized link for smart people.
Nothing "needs" this amount of control...Oh, but the flavor!
It's nice to see that someone is going to finally make it so I stop burning my lunch.
Scary thought for someone named after a food...
Developers: We can use your help.
Nice, now the industrial complex will know if I like my eggs baked or boiled.
For the perfect anti-Unix, write an OS that thinks it knows what you're doing better than you do and let it be wrong.
The people trying to use it for nefarious purposes are.
RFID has some neat applications, most of which will do nothing more than make your day and mine a little easier. It doesn't matter if it's a coffee pot that knows how much sugar, honey or milk you use. Or a little keychain that stores all my information so I don't have to fill out any forms at the hospital, hotel, police station or when I renew my license (that was a three hour wait). If I could do all that by dragging a small keychain over a little platic thing, count me in...
Which insures the identity of your cookware and that only legal US plates are used and that taxes are paid. The RealPlate act will insure that your china is not made in China and that only US knifes and forks labor to cut your meat.
The next thing would be pantry integration. I'd like to pick out a stack of recipe cards, drop them into a pile, and have the system figure out what I need to buy versus what I've already got - especially since it could link with RFID tags of the stuff in my cupboard. Granted, it won't know which items are full and which are empty, so it won't know if I've got enough vegetable oil for the particular recipe, but it can always print out a list of exceptions that I could investigate.
Then, I need it to integrate with my wine cellar, so it can see whether I've got an appopriately matching wine for each of the recipes.
And it'd obviously have an internet connection, so it could check prices on each of the ingredients. I could put in my work address and my girlfriend's work address, and it could balance out the list and prices so it could SMS me (or her, depending on the shop) right before I leave work.
Ha! This is Slashdot! Who am I kidding? I don't have a girlfriend, a wine cellar OR a job! Much less RFID cookware, bwahaha. Now pass me that pizza delivery menu.
What's your damage, Heather?
But seriously, if that's the only mistake you were able to find, you're not fit to call yourself Grammar Anything.
They're talking about inductive heating, which is a bit worrisome: It involves having a kilowatt or so of 13.56 MHz radio frequency energy beamin up at the cooking implement.
The pot can't be just any pot-- it has to hit a certain electromagnetic sweet spot, as to absorb the radio waves, and not reflect them all over the place.
this usually implies it has to be made of somewhat resistive and lossy material-- iron is a good choice.
Unfortunately materials that are resistive electrically are usually resistive, thermally too. So instead of getting a nice even heat, the pan is likely to have hot spots.
Ergo the pans really could use some sort of sensor to feed back to the stove some info about how the pan is heating. As to not have some cool spots while nearby the pan is melting through.
So this isnt so much a wonderful added feature, as a partial kludge to compensate for the basic foibles of the whole scheme.
Ba-dum-CHING!
This has nothing to do with RFID really. RFID is just an ID. This is a nice temperature monitoring device. I have see other wireless units for sale but none built into the Pot like this.
Its a clever idea that I can see being used for testing out cooking techniques. However, using the term RFID is just to hype the produce as it really is not getting that much out of the RFID technology.
A stove that communicates with the pots via RFID has enough micro-electronics inside to contain a clock, maybe a scheduler even! Mom can place the pan there, it'll heat up in time and signal you via WLAN, Bluetooth or SMS, so you know when food is ready! What a pointless waste...
1: Come up with crappy inductive heating cookware/stove combo. 2: ??? 3: Make liberal use of the term RFID in marketing hype 4: Post slashvertisement 5: Profit!
Other than this text, there is no discernible information contained in this sig.
Even temperatures would benefit gourmet cooks more than inattentive college students trying not to burn their mac and cheese. Precise cooking temperatures without large swings command premium dollars.
Just check out this for the extremes people will go to for this kind of control.
Getting one of these chips into a vapourizer would be a neat idea. Hardware hackers with free time should get working. Everybody must get stoned.
Now you can fry your RFID chip, literally!
Chocolate, candies, and sauces come to mind. Especially chocolate.
Cocao butter in chocolate melts around 90F. Ideal melting temperature is between 40-45C (104-113F). Above that (45C, 115F), the chocolate scorches.
For tempering (the shiny coatings), you melt it at around 110F, cool it to 79-80F, and then warm it back to 90F. Automating it is very handy.
Candies (and related sauces) are very temperature sensitive. Sugar melts at 146C (367F). Just right and you get caramel. Just wrong and you get carbon.
"It's basically pots and pans that you can place RFID cooking cards in the handle with."
Just what the hell did they teach you in school? Anything?
ENGLISH, CmdrTaco, ENGLISH! ! !
I only use one button on my microwave oven, MinutePlus. My mom always wonders how I get it to turn on by pressing one button without typing in the amount of time...
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
It's is a tool that is used for monitoring and tracking.
All I want, and a lot of folks I have tlaked to, is laws in place to prevent abuse. Unfortuunatly they are easy to abuse.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The above post was moderated down overrated so that the person who did it will not have to face accountability in the meta mod process. its a shame, it was a legitimate expression of opinion and fact.
This is certainly a new twist in dealing with all of those exploding meth labs.
RFID in pot? The next step in the war on drugs? WHO KNOWS?!
an ambulance drives by and scrambles the signal?
It'll burn your house down?
--
"Officer, you must be drunk."
this seems more like a thing for microwaves or ovens for TV dinners. maybe scan the box and insert frozen crap? that may be nice if your internet connected oven could have its characteristics tune the cooking instructions. does this already exist? anyway, it's not for me, i like to actually cook.
food you cook in a pot or pan does not seem like it would benefit from this. there are so many variables in cooking (like how often you stir it!) that come into play, plus a little variety is what makes cooking have more soul than fast food take-out. think about making cookies for example, some people cook them a little longer to make them crunchy and some like them softer. people that like to cook usually like to have their personal taste and input. good luck to them, but i don't see a big demand in this direction.
slashdot. news for nerds, stuff that matters?!
jeez, frightens me that RFID might make it to the households of all the dontknow-dontcare guys...at least ill be able to check out what my neighbours having for lunch, right?
but on the other side...finally every nerd can get rid of their mama:
"food will be ready in approximately 5.76588 minutes! WARNING: still hot! eating right away might lead to 2nd degree burnings. have a nice day, your RFID-kitchen"
RFID cards that tell the stove to turn off after a certain amount of time would help prevent mistakes with Teflon pans.
Better would be pans with sensors that monitor the temperature of the pans used. Not only would it be safer, but it would be easier to control temperatures of food being cooked.
This sig seemed like a good idea at the time....
Parent have surely never used an induction oven, as everything he asserts, inclcuding the frequency of operation, is bogous. Mod down!
Saying that "gas is better for cooking" is only true if you're talking about traditional electric cooktops. Induction is superior to gas. See http://inductioncooking.wikispaces.com/AboutInduct ion (disclaimer: I maintain that website, although the information is collected from various sources).
That said, I don't see a lot of use for a pre-programmed cooking routine. It will only work when you can guarantee the consistency of your ingredients (making caramel or deep frying come to mind, but there are already cooktops that can maintain a set temperature +/-5C).
With exception of copper.
Which is what is used in the best french restaurants in France.
The main problems with copper is the "maintenance" : it's hard to clean, and has to be polished quite often. But it has the best conduction for cooking, with a nice even diffusion.
Also you cannot as yet use them on induction stoves (as far as I know...I'm not that much a cookware geek)
Induction is top for a few application : boiling water under 30 seconds, changing temperature of your pan really fast...
Induction IS top hardware when you have no gas, because your alternative is the bland electrical stove
But then I learned to cook on a gas stove, and grandma showed me how to cook with copper hardware, so I'm not willing to change until I have to move to a flat with no gas pipe.
And I'm using "Tefal" Teflon coated iron pans, because I don't want to spend one hour dishwashing every night.
But I still think copper and gas are the best combination.
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choose neither?
:)
"adjusted every 0.06 of a second"
it would have beeen either
- adjusted every 0.06 seconds
or
- afjusted evere 16th of a second
well, nice mix anyway
..will pan out boom tish
Interesting idea, can it alter temperatures per pot on the stove? so my meat sauce cooks on high then simmers while something else does a controlled slow cook? Nice vendor lock in - you now have to buy pots, pans, skillets AND the stove they belong to.
...since the German verb "ficken", which is homophonous to "FIQin" means "to fuck" and the prefix "er-", though not normally used with this verb, usually designates a successful completion of the action indicated by the stem. Not a clever choice of letters.
-- Language is a virus from outer space.
bad idia , i am a chef . I like to ajust the flame never used the new induction stove so no apinion i like gas
"I don't pitch OpenSUSE Linux to my friends, i let Microsoft do it for me
If CmdrTaco wants to stop burning his lunch, he will stop making the same mistake nearly everyone else does when burning stuff: they forget that its cooking in the first place. Whenever you are burning something, I'd say roughly about 95% of the time it can be attributed to the fact that you forgot it was cooking in the first place or were otherwise engaged elsewhere (playing a video game, doing a seperate cooking step, etc) and you missed your time cue to remove the food from the heat source. So what you really arent fancy RFID device, what you need are some decent kitchen timers, nothing fancy, just something that is loud and will let you know when its time is up. Now, if the RFID device could somehow detect that the food was burning and the subsequently turn off the heat source, that might be useful, though any hardcore cook would not likely ever use any of these type of devices beyond perhaps a digital meat thermometer. The market is definitely tech-toy lovers and people who can't cook (note, these two catagories may possibly be mutually inclusive).
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
...sorry to followup my own post. More on 'smart cooking' here, including PDF codes you can download for various recipies, print out & swipe at your smart oven for 'perfect cooking'.
I despair sometimes.
Hey HaggiZ, "RFIQ" != "RFID". Seriously, there are a lot of people out there calling anything small that passively or with minimal self-powering communicates via RF radiation (i.e. radio waves) "RFID". RFID is a specific thing. It's basically a small, cheap device that echoes back a unique ID number for tracking purposes. Calling this RFID is as fucking stupid as calling everything with 2 wheels and a motor a "scooter". Get a fucking clue, people.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Doesn't sound like "just" pots and pans to me. Sounds more like Entire Oven Appliance and Cookware unless that RFID pots and pans come with machanical robtic arm with RFID reciever to turn my gas stove knob to turn down the heat.
Besides that, how many times do we ever "cook" lunch?
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
There would certainly be no problem powering the thing; there's plenty of RF power in there. Interference could be overcome by programming the oven to shut off for a few milliseconds every second, during which period the probe would send a temp reading.
+/- 50 degrees isn't going to ruin your dinner. What IS critical is stirring technique. I doubt I'd get much use out of RFID cookware.
The bits on the bus go on and off... on and off... on and off...
It would be quite useless. I am always aware about the temp of my food cooking, either on the XBox 360 PSU (also useful as a foot warmer in bed) and on my overclocked intel (great for pot noodle) using the motherboard temperature sensors ;)
I actually think it could be feasible to harness all that wasted heat from electronic equipment to cook food
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The best thing you can do is purchase some solid stainless steel cookware (like Allclad) and get one piece of non-stick for cooking eggs.
With this compu-cookware, what happens when you want to finish a dish in the oven?
I would like to see how long this stuff last at 450 degrees.
All this technology will never replace stirring, thermometer, and following directions.
Good stainless steel pans will last longer than you do and will be always reliable.
People will buy the stupidist stuff to "help" them cook, when they should just read a book and practice.
Maybe read cooks illustrated, http://www.cooksillustrated.com/ the best way to learn to cook.
This looks like it works best only if you want one single temperature, instead of a range, while cooking something. If I start something on low, then turn it up when I add something, but only want it to boil for a second, or whatever, I would have to keep swapping out cards, or bypass this, right?
How did this get modded informative?
I know, this is Slashdot, but didn't anyone look at the linked page? You know, the one that starts with "Each Vita Craft pan handle is embedded with an RFID computer chip..."
Now the (NSA/FBI/CIA/Insert favorite American spook agency here) is going to know what you're eating and how hot it is so they don't burn themselves when they come in your house through the kitchen windows. Or they will know what exactly they have to poison in your local grocery store to kill you specifically.
Or your (neighbours/parents/mother-in-law) can come in and ask if they can join you for your famous meatloaf without even asking them!
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Can anybody offer suggestions?
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I've waited for such precision. I have the requisite sub-30ms pings between work and home.
No more wondering if I forgot to turn off the pan of hard boiled eggs that I left out for lunch.
My alternative, of course, is the realtime monitoring of the local fire department.
This operates at 171KHz, not 13.56 MHz. Personally, I would not be too worried about all this. In addition, it is fast and efficient. As far as a kilowatt of power, well, back in the late 60's, my father bought a Litton Microwave Oven (one of the first for consumers). A number of ppl swore that we would lose our eyes, would explode from being heated inside out, or would have funny looking kids. They lost.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
YES!! I can finally brew my LSD without expensive bunsen burners
WOOT FOR TECH!!!
I visited the website, and I think this is marketing. The most important measurement of temperature in cooking food is the internal temperature of high-mass items such as steaks. The temperature reading which is important is the innermost part of the thickest steak in the pan. How is an RFID tag in the pan going to measure that? Answer: it isn't. Only a thermocouple probe can cut that job, which is why I have two different thermocouples in my kitchen that I use almost every time I cook.
Another part of the website reads: "Prohibits use of wrong pans with incompatible recipes." Excuse you, Vita Craft Corporation, but I don't need you to tell me how to use my own pans. Sometimes I cook on the outside of my cast iron skillets.
I think this has nothing to do with improving the way that humans prepare food and everything to do with using a new technology to sell more cookware. If you want to become a better cook, then, by god, invest the money in some good cookware, take some cooking classes with people you like, watch some good tv shows, and, by all means, don't be afraid to try things and have fun doing it. If anything, it's an excuse to become more social. If you invite 6 people over, then you're going to be inspired to try and make something that impresses and feeds your loved ones.
I don't make the rules. I just make fun of them.
With the exception of gold. Julia Childs used a gold frying pan briefly on her TV show. Of course this is a little bit pricey for most people.