Most people associate the Internet of Things (IoT) with their home thermostat, lighting, entertainment system and home alarm. However with smart technology being introduced to kitchen appliances, we now have the advantage of converting our once traditional kitchens into smart kitchens. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the term IoT, it enables a group of devices to communicate and exchange information with each other over the internet without the need for any human interaction.
Appliance manufacturers are now integrating smart features across a range of appliances, from fridges to food temperature gauges and scales with your tablet or smartphone. Here we outline, just what that means for updating your kitchen to a smart kitchen and how that might make your life easier.
From the comfort of your mobile phone, app integrated appliances can show you what food you have inside your fridge and send suggestions of what to cook as well as which ingredients have the possibility of expiring soon, helping to save money and with meal planning. Fridge doors can now include touch screens that display information about its contents, expiration dates, and your grocery list.
Smart ovens also connect to apps that provide cooking tips and cooking appliances that can be controlled remotely from your phone.
Wireless smart scales display and can help you measure exact portions for your recipes and help you track the nutritional information of ingredients used in your meals, substituting ingredients and adjusting portion sizes.
And for those coffee connoisseurs, you can now select your coffee preference, make it and control its temperature from your tablet or smartphone and use your mobile device to reorder coffee capsules.
There are even smart blender apps that help you update your grocery list and track nutritional information for all your favorite smoothies and juicing preferences.
Need help with your shopping list? A bar code scanner in your bin can now scan items you have thrown away, so they can be automatically added to your shopping list. Pretty cool. Don’t you think?
IoT is changing our lives, in more ways than one and will continue to do so as we find more and more appliances to integrate it with.