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Microsoft Helps Develop Smart, IoT-Enabled Refrigerators (microsoft.com)
An anonymous Slashdot reader writes:
Promising "intelligent food management" to help with shopping and meal planning, Microsoft is collaborating with household appliance manufacturer Liebherr to develop a refrigerator where stored groceries "can be monitored using internal cameras." The refrigerators will use Microsoft's object recognition technology to create a list of your groceries -- with photos -- accessible via an an Android or iOS app (or a Windows device).
"Microsoft is providing computer vision capability as part of this collaboration," says their web page, citing the deep-learning technology underlying the Microsoft Cognitive Services Computer Vision API, released in Microsoft's open source Computational Network Toolkit. "Using the deep learning algorithms contained within CNTK, Microsoft data scientists worked with Liebherr to build a new image processing system to detect specific food products present inside a Liebherr refrigerator..."
"Microsoft is providing computer vision capability as part of this collaboration," says their web page, citing the deep-learning technology underlying the Microsoft Cognitive Services Computer Vision API, released in Microsoft's open source Computational Network Toolkit. "Using the deep learning algorithms contained within CNTK, Microsoft data scientists worked with Liebherr to build a new image processing system to detect specific food products present inside a Liebherr refrigerator..."
If I installed this on my fridge I would use the app when I went to the pharmacy. That way I could check up on which antibiotics where already growing in my fridge.
.. designed to get people more used to having cameras and other sensory equipment all around them.
"You have already had six beers today."
A solution in search of a problem.
#DeleteChrome
Sounds like a solution in search of a problem to solve. What's wrong with a note pad and a pen on the fridge's door? That's what I've been using since DARPANET.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
These fridges will be just another window into your life that advertisers can see through. You better give me a deep discount on these!
Health insurance goes up because you're not eating healthy enough, police have free access to all these cameras to make sure no one's storing drugs in their fridge etc.
Because writing 'Milk' on a list when you take the last carton of milk is such a daunting task!
-=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
BSOD has just frozen my freezer!
I really need one of these
- tends to obscure the usefulness of the technology, as usual. The socalled IoT has a lot of very promising uses, none of which have anything to do with spying on people. Just think of finding parking spaces - a very mundane task, and something that can make a visit to a cuty centre daunting. There will usually be a legal parking space somewhere, but how do you find it? If all spaces had an IP address and a number plate recognition camera, you could book you space in advance, and be sure that anybody who parked in you space would be fined. I would give my left arm for that - or somebody's left arm at least.
I listened to a programme recently about energy and how to use the production capacity optimally. The problem now is that we have to have enough capacity to cover surges in demand; like when everybody goes to put the electric kettle on when there is a break in the TV programmes. With a bit (well, quite a bit) of clever, automatic management, if certain equipments were on the IoT, they could be told to hold back on their energy needs just while there is a short surge in demand. These equipments could be small (but numerous) things fridges and freezers, or big things like the bitumen heaters in a factory that produces asphalt coatings for roads. They don't actually needs to be active at set intervals - they could certainly wait 15 minutes without problems. Apparently this alone could help us stretch our energy capacity a lot.
Regrettably, all you see headlines about is nonsense like this, about how bloody cool it would be to have a camera inside you fridge or whatever. Even at best, this is no more than a mildly amusing gimmick that comes along for the ride and tries to steal the show from the actual, serious importance of the IoT.
>Microsoft is providing computer vision capability as part of this collaboration. Using the deep learning algorithms contained within CNTK, Microsoft data scientists worked with Liebherr to build a new image processing system to detect specific food products present inside a Liebherr refrigerator. ...I would've assumed it was part of a comedy article satirizing idiotic new technological gadgets.
I guess yesterday's over-the-top satire is today's depressing reality. (see also: Colbert vs. Trump)
One day we will be told to visit the doctor because we used too much toilet paper in a given week.
"Your fridge cannot recognize the ice cream you installed. (R)eboot fridge or (M)elt the ice cream ?"
"Your fridge is 99% full. You can make more space with the Fridge Cleanup Tool. Proceeed ? (Y/N)"
and at the very end:
"I am sorry Dave, you should not eat this."
"Open the fridge door, HAL!"
New meaning for BSOD - You get served ads to Buy Some Overpriced Dip.
usar hipnose no felipe não vai transformar ele em um pedofilo como o jorge. bater punheta no filho enquanto ele dorme é coisa de cicatriz e não de despoachante.
This would be much easier to do if all the items purchased in a supermarket had some kind of machine-readable label that linked to a database holding the product information and price...
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
More like designed to be hacked.. Come home after long weekend trip, find all in fridge ruin because some script kiddie resetted thermostat to room temperature... Very good idea to make IoT hype fridge.... Knowing Microsofts development model, security is last thing in their mind... But atleast you can enjoy BSD in new environment, your fridge....
How does the vision system determine how much of any item is left when it is in an opaque container.
No "You need milk" notification when someone puts the almost empty carton back in.
However, if it didn't detect a carton, it would send "You need **Brand X**'s wholesome and healthy low fat milk!"
If you can't remember what you need from the store and require a camera in your fridge to access that information. It's because your obsessed with technology like a driver watching Harry Potter in a Tesla. You probably didn't get a good fridge either as many consumer statistics from actual owners of these expensive appliances say they fail far more frequently than your typical basic appliance. This is where technology is trying to make a Dime off your technology obsession.
Impress your friends by being able to look in your fridge from work? Yeah, I don't think I will ever need this.
This slogan is getting more and more true day after day.
Until now I am still smart enough to write a grocery list and anticipate on whatever things I may need to buy for my own subsistence. When I become dumb enough that I need my fridge to do this simple task for me, maybe my SmartPharmacy(tm) will automatically buy me SmartDeath pills(TM)...
While the chances of them being able to SEE more than 15% of the contents of my fridge around, you know, all the other stuff in it, no matter how many cameras there are....
I can see a great opportunity to livestream the constant evolution of internal lifeforms as a new reality TV show - their daily trials and tribulations, the constant ebb and flow of bacterial and viral battle.
Just dont ever open the door - never ever open the door. I tried that once. ONCE.
More and more I get the feeling, to want smart appliances you gotta be rather dumb yourself.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Do we really want this? Just imagine what happens to the global energy consumption if all and everything gets this kind of IoT technology.
That is not what I envisioned when thinking about IoT. Very-low power should be a key attribute for IoT.
If it isn't very-low power, then it is not IoT. Then it is just a bolted on Pc.
IoT is already going the way of "the cloud", quickly becoming a meaningless phrase.
I cannot wait until bored kids start hacking all this IoT stuff. Fridges, thermostats, tvs, everything you really don't need to monitor from your phone will be fun karma points for the kids.
Ok .. they don't have image detection. But they do already have a fridge that has a camera to see the inside and a neat Android interface. My wife and I played with one at a local store recently and it was kinda neat. It had a nice whiteboard function to leave notes, supported streaming video and supposedly interfaced with the SmartTVs, although I'm not sure of the functionality. Since it appears to use Android, it was pretty intuitive to us. I don't think it would be to people who haven't used Android phones though.
I don't know how useful image detection will be without several cameras in the back and side of each shelf. But it was interesting to be able to see very clearly what was inside without opening the door. I wonder if the energy cost of the TV screen and computer hardware will outweigh the savings of not opening the door as often or as long.
It wasn't worth to me the extra $2K more a comparable fridge costs. It might be to people with more disposable income than I have.
I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
Smart fridges are not enough. Make them order food when it runs out. Make a little gadget that can sit outside the home for the Amazon Fresh delivery guy to deposit your delivery into. Make a little conveyor belt from that outside storage gadget to the fridge and automatically store everything. Make this contraption unabusable to gain entry to the house.
And if you've invented all that, why stop there? Make a robot that cooks the food from the fridge. TADA: personal takeaway. No need to leave the house ever*!
*Well, almost. You still need to get out when you find your perfect "stay in" partner to have your "indoors" kids with. But that's just once.
Quite frankly if you can't even plan buying your own food and using it then you probably need to be placed in secure accomodation.
These ideas are just total, utter crap and are the worst examples of technology being used for it's own sake.
It's just another aspect of the current "helplessness" culture that's being introduced to society which seeks to remove your sense of independence and turn you into a perpetual child incapable of making decisions for yourself or looking after yourself.
"Don't try to change that plug you might injure yourself...", "Don't try to repair that machine you might break it..."
Come along little baby... Big Brioher knows best. Just do what you're told and you'll be safe and well.
The whole thing stink of stinks of Tavistock Institute (Stanford Research for you USAians) programming.
Because it always freezes.
will finally solve the mystery of the light -- it's ON in order to see what's inside...
stop calling these crap smart, its run by ms its SPYWARE
I foresee the Blue Cheese of Death.
WINDOWS 11: designed specifically for fridges......
comes with complimentary ice cube tray. /day to run
will look and act like utter shit on any pc
will spy on every keystroke you do....
will cost 50 usd
Camera can only see what you see because light goes out when you close the door.
What brands do you use? Microsoft will feed you coupons, readable with your smartphone, or sent directly to your smartphone, to save you money on whatever companies overpriced products are paying them to send you ads with coupons. If you think a "smart" fridge is for your benefit, think again.
Because we're not smart enough to keep track of what we have in our own fridge. What a waste.
linquendum tondere
GREAT. Another device that the manufacturer will not provide updates for two years after it's been released. The last thing we all need is an Internet-connected refrigerator which has a security vulnerability that can't be patched.
When will these fucking morons learn that we don't fucking need Internet connectivity for every ... fucking ... thing.
LG has shown a Windows 10 fridge, running on a low end x86 PC. Your Samsung fridge seems a lot of fun and niceties from the read while I'm sure most people will turn away from the Metro apps and Windows store, if only instinctively. But I really hate to be the guy that breaks the fun :), so as to point out the Android fridge's near term future is dubious, whereas the Windows fridge is promised security updates till 2025, subject to extension if an OS upgrade occurs or if MS has another moment of "shit, if we drop off support right now there will be 400 millions more Internet zombies so let's extend this OS version for three years".
Hopefully we may end up getting "long term Android". Perhaps using Android on straight x86 PC hardware? nvidia ARM hardware may end up with some long term support too. Will another SoC vendor follow suit? There is no hard technical reason to drop driver support etc. after a couple years. Looking forward for LESS innovation :)
This is just another egregious data harvesting attempt by Microsoft. Not being satisfied with scooping up data from our computers, Microsoft is now looking to look inside our appliances to see what we eat, what clothes we wash, etc.
.
You're out of sanitary towels! , You're out of sanitary towels! ... ...
You're out of sanitary towels!
You're out of sanitary towels!
Oh, cute, just what I need. A tattletale fridge reporting to the NSA when and what I have for the midnite snack. Or, Heaven forbid, where I stash the stash...
Hey the Burglar Association supports this.
No fridge activity = empty house to plunder
Meanwhile their supposedly dumb counterparts carry on working. A genuinely smart device would be one which provides value independent of some ephemeral service in the cloud and it would do so without compromising your privacy.
Sorry, but your fridge has been hacked, your food is being held hostage, and you will have to pay us $100 in Bitcoin to regain control of your food and drink, and BTW, your milk is expired...
Typical Microsoft --- features first, security as an afterthought.
Microsoft smart.
I suppose their intent is that this fridge will be able to manage supplies and demands the same way that my mother so effortlessly and effectively managed our ice box and pantry in our very dynamic household when I was a kid. She had learned her stuff from my grandmother and added a few tricks and neat solutions to the repertoire, doing all of it everyday in her head and without blinking an eyelash in the face of last-minute changes in the number of chairs around the table and last-minute confessions to the "Who ate all the ..." question. And today we need a computer to do this? What a waste of resources!
I suppose this means that the answer to the ancient Question:: Does the light in the 'fridge really go out when I close the door is: NO :)
Think of all the data mining opportunities.
Your fridge can know if you are a midnight snacker.
What you purchase, how often you purchase, the brands you purchase, brand preference.
How much you snack, what foods you buy, how often you order takeout, where you order it from.
Think of how this can be monetized! And the people will even pay for it too! zero cost!
Insurance companies: their health index, what foods they buy, how often they order takeout, etc.
Supermarkets: targeted marketing, they can raise the price of your "must-have" items.
Takeout: target marketing.
Power Companies: Not much in the fridge? we'll shut down the compressor for a bit.
The best part is, people will hap-illy pay a PREMIUM for this SERVICE! Even the electricity and bandwidth!
Zero cost!
And Windows 10 freezes in the fridge.
What is this, the third time someone tries this? Last time we used to joke about Internet-connected toasters and fridges was around late 90s and the dotcom boom? Then again in the mid-2000s?
While I do believe that tracking your food intake can be beneficial, I am not sure this particular implementation will be for the benefit of the consumer. Regardless, computer vision seems a bit overkill for this. A smartphone app with barcode reader and a small scale should be enough, the trick is getting it streamlined.
1. It will crash and your food will spoil. ... I can't wait!
2. You will get calls requesting your SSN and bank details from people with Indian and Russian accents saying they are from Microsoft support and you have a virus.
3. You will need to double click on the door handle to open it.
4. You will have to pay $300 a year to subscribe to fresh food.
5. The camera will send pictures of you in your underwear at 2 AM to Microsoft for quality improvement.
6. You will need to subscribe to virus protection for your refrigerator.
Now you won't only see the blue screen of death on ATM machines and airport display boards, you can see it on your own 'fridge. And there will be a blue film of death on all your rotting vegetables. #badidea
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
They mounted a very large tablet on a Refrigarator. The really crazy part is that because of "innovative features " like ice dispensers and water chillers the 1940's refrigerators were actually more energy efficent then the modern ones. Putting a power hungry giant screen on it is one way to continue driving down energy efficency
In the USA, fridges are already defective-by-design. They have styrofoam in the cold-air outlet ducts, and use R600a refrigerant, which is flammable.
You wanna improve refrigerators? How about getting rid of the oxygen inside the refrigerator that is ruining your food? Maybe something that reacts with it, or a nitrogen pump to displace it.
How about bringing in cold outside air in the winter to cool the refrigerator, instead of using joule-thomson in a heated room?
How about charcoal filtration to remove bad smells?
None of this requires the internet, sorry.
Freezes like Windows 10 Anniversary Edition
IDIOT == Insecurely Designed Internet Of Things
Spread the meme.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
... that the light inside your fridge doesn't turn off when you close the door?
well, i won't be buying a liebherr refrigerator ever.
Can we please make sure they put a beautifully rendered Microsoft logo prominently on the fridge?
I want to know which products I shouldn't buy.
This will keep the Microsoft people busy so they don't merge with Tesla. I for one would rather have fridge carnage, than highway carnage.
This seems as useful for refrigerators as Cortana is for a PC, which is to say,"Not at all." there is no description of what the features might do for the consumer, and the only real benefits listed above are for advertisers, much like Cortana. when I purchase one of these things, will I be required to pay for the bandwidth it uses? What about my IoT range, Washer,Dryer, hot water heater and microwave? What do I get? A shopping list with dry spices, fabric softener, dryer sheets and an add for a water softener which can tell me to buy salt? Unless some appliance maker can show me how I do better because something is connected, and enough better that I am compensated for the bandwidth I pay for, I will never buy a connected appliance.( I believe unconnected appliances will still be produced and sold in underdeveloped countries for the foreseeable future.)