GNU/Linux and Enlightenment Running On a Fridge

k-s writes "Linux, the GNU userland and Enlightenment and its foundation libraries (EFL) are known for their resource efficiency and flexibility, key components for embedded products. Today it was announced that such features led them to be used in a fridge that runs Linux and X11 with EFL. The Freescale i.MX25 based fridge by Electrolux (Frigidaire) provides the expected bits such as temperature controls and pre-set modes (vacation, party) as well as a special purpose drawer that cools your drinks and food with a beautiful UI. It also ships with handful applications for contacts, calendar, reminder, digital picture frame and even an illustrated recipe book from a famous Brazilian magazine."

Comments

Possible uses...

[IronSight]

Well, it would be cool to have a list of contents with the date they were put in so you can keep track of things that need to be thrown out (useful for foodservice industry to keep only fresh foods on hand). A timer app to beep when you need to pull the turkey out in case your stove doesn't have a timer (I know my gas stove doesn't). Of course the recipe app they mentioned is a good idea. Temp contols aswell. An app that checks the compressor status and other things (like those industrial air conditioners they use in server rooms to track humidity and such) with suggestions for optimal performance at low power cost for your fridge like, "Hey don't hold the door open kid!" for my son when it detects the door has been sitting there open for 2 minutes. A passworded door lock so your kids don't try to climb in playing "hide and seek" or try to take a beer out when you go outside for 2 minutes. Any other cool ideas?

Re:Possible uses...

[ledow]

"Well, it would be cool to have a list of contents with the date they were put in so you can keep track of things that need to be thrown out (useful for foodservice industry to keep only fresh foods on hand)."

So you want to sit and enter a date for every item you ever put into your fridge? As far as I know, no barcode contains data about expiry dates. If you did, you'd need one on every product. Then you (and your kids) would need to scan everything in and out in order for it to be anywhere near accurate. I'd predict about a month before you got bored and never used that facility ever again, or before you got tired of starting to cook and then realising your son ate your cheese without scanning it out.

"A timer app to beep when you need to pull the turkey out in case your stove doesn't have a timer (I know my gas stove doesn't)."

Buy a 50p kitchen timer.

"Of course the recipe app they mentioned is a good idea."

Wanna have to keep running to the fridge to read the next line of the recipe? Need to keep updating those recipes every week or so? Much simpler to print them out from the net, buy a recipe book and / or buy a cheap device that can display PDF. Not to mention having to buy the damn recipes in the first place.

"Temp contols aswell."

Really? Because fridges don't have those already?

"An app that checks the compressor status and other things (like those industrial air conditioners they use in server rooms to track humidity and such)"

So you can micromanage an environment that you will actually see no advantage to just setting it to a half-decent setting on any modern fridge? I have other things to spend my time on than micro-managing my fridge's environment. Hell, I don't even manage the server rooms in work to this level of detail. So long as it's not an oven in there, with alarms going off, I don't really care. Same for my fridge - no frost, not hot, that'll do. It's not like there's much you can *do* about it even if it is overly humid, etc.

""Hey don't hold the door open kid!" for my son when it detects the door has been sitting there open for 2 minutes."

Educate your son. Get a modern fridge that has a timer with beep-warning. Fit one of those 50p reed-switch sensors you can get to protect doors and windows and set it to a 10 second timer. None of it will stop your son doing that (in fact, for the first few months, he'll do it deliberately to make it talk to him!).

"A passworded door lock so your kids don't try to climb in playing "hide and seek" or try to take a beer out when you go outside for 2 minutes."

You need to supervise your kids better. If they're really that much trouble, a 50p child lock on the fridge will tend to take care of them (higher the better). Don't buy fridges that lock their doors (silly American idea? I don't know but ours are just magnetic catches and they work just fine - even my 2-year-old can open it). And if your kids are stealing your beer, that's not a problem that a gadget on a fridge should be solving.

"Any other cool ideas?"

Yeah, stop over-thinking a household appliance. Yes I *can* connect my toaster to the Internet. There's not a single practical reason why I would ever want to and all the good reasons are actually better done by other methods (and almost infinitely cheaper).

To quote XKCD: God, I'd like to file a bug report....

Re:Cool.....

[Lloyd_Bryant]

Apart from the first couple of days of owning the fridge to set the temperature to something sensible, in the last 6 years, the controls I've wanted to use are "defrost" (once). I can also see the use for the "just got home from supermarket, chill a bit more please" button, but it's not something I need as I'm close enough to the supermarket that my food is still cold when I get it gome.

Just wait until they start putting RFID or something similar on food packages - then it'll be easy to patch in a "take inventory" mode, and have it tell you what you're out of.

Or for some of us, maybe a "time in fridge" monitor to warn us when something has passed "somewhat stale" and is heading towards "biohazard"...

Re:Cool.....

[callmebill]

Problem with the inventory mode is that containers remain in the fridge until they are empty. E.g., even though I have about half a glass of milk left in the bottle, by my fridge's estimation I still have "one bottle of milk". And what about produce! I think it's a novelty for people with disposable income. Even having a browser or a cookbook on there... Do you want to stand in front of the fridge and read? No. Bust out Joy of Cooking and leave it open on the counter. Maybe the most useful thing would be web radio.... my fridge would need integrated speakers, though.

Re:Much as I love Linux ....

[kangsterizer]

if it does the above tasks well i don't see why not. it's not like if it was going to force reordering of what you need. But i'd like if it told me "eggs u put there 1 week ago are going to be bad tomorrow if u dont make them today" cause hey, we don't all always remember that stuff.
I'm not saying i'd pay extra for it, but if it's there (and will eventually be there) then why not. Can always open the fridge and check everything inside if you prefer that.