Slashdot Mirror
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.
One more step to being able to cook a meal without leaving the desk.
My blog
For the millionth time, it's = contraction of 'it is'. its=posessive of it.
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.
I'm sorry. The number you have reached is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Actually, cast iron has wonderfully even heating, better than almost anything else out there. However, because of it's poor conductivity, you have to let it sit on the stove for a bit for the temperature to even out.
One of the best restaurants in the world, The French Laundry, uses induction stoves instead of gas stoves.
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).
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.
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.