Reinvent the Refrigerator. Since its debut in the 1940s, it hasn’t changed much in design. Put a bunch of food in a large cooled box and hope you remember to eat its contents before it rots. There has been some lame attempts by slapping a LCD panel on the front with an RFID scanner, but you still have to remember where you store the food. I think automation and inventory management via mobile device is key. There is a lively discussion on quora right now, but I’d like to also invite people to poke holes and/or add value to my idea.
Basically it’s an automated parking garage that is shrunk down to the size of a fridge. You can learn more here I apologize in advance that I’m linking to FB, it’s just were the idea currently lives.
The benefit of the company is providing a greener fridge that helps people not waste food, which is a big problem right now. Americans waste 34 million tons of food waste each year. The amount of green house gases, labor, and transportation costs to produce food just to throw away food is maddening.
Obviously the first fridge will cost the same as a luxury car, since you’re basically cramming a robot into a fridge, but so was the first computer. I can see this fridge being the next big opportunity where everyone throws out the dumb fridge just like everyone did with their CRT for an LCD.
That being said, I welcome your comments and questions.
I was thinking of this same sort of thing for a diet site. Rather than count calories, just photograph your plate with your hand next to it, and have the computer calculate for you.
The main issues I see with doing this in a fridge would be viewing angles and telling the difference between an old carton of OJ and a new carton of OJ.
The trouble with chest freezers is they are a pain to get things from the bottom of. What I’ve seen happen is stuff remaining at the bottom of the freezer for years on end, eventually becoming freezer-burnt. But if you can automate the stacking and unstacking of things, this could be a good idea. You wouldn’t even need the entire top to be openable (or at least, you wouldn’t typically open the entire top), there could just be a smaller port for pulling things out of.
Another idea for encouraging more energy-efficient freezing would be a garage-sized (or bigger) freezer designed for community use. The bigger the better from an energy efficiency standpoint because that means less surface area per unit volume. I’m thinking fully automated storage and retrieval would make this work better as a community good (compared to a walk-in freezer), since there would be no need to employ a person to retrieve and keep track of things manually. You could basically just walk up to it, swipe your card, and tell it which items you want to retrieve, at which point they are deposited on a shelf for you to grab.
It would be sort of like a vending machine, but stocked by the user and with basically whatever you want. However, suppliers probably wouldn’t charge too much to do deliveries, especially if there is high volume. Also, if you have an entire neighborhood eating out of the same freezer, there could be significant discounts from making group orders.
Community freezer reminds me of a concept I like. Grocery stores hold effectively no food in case of emergency. With each sale, a percentage fee would pay for similar foods to be stored for you at an extremely secure facility. What if amazon orders would double spend a couple items per order and hold them for you?
There has been some lame attempts by slapping a LCD panel on the front with an RFID scanner, but you still have to remember where you store the food.
A good user interface could solve this, even without the RFID scanner. The touchscreen would display items in refrigerator, sorted by shelves.
Adding a new food: click “new food” icon, select the food from the list, click on the shelf. (You are supposed to do this after you have put the food inside.) Now the panel displays the food on the correct shelf.
I can’t see how a new fridge is a solution to that problem. If every time you go to the supermarket you buy more food than you’ll be able to eat before the next time you go there, eventually you’ll have to throw away some food, unless it lasts eternally. The standard solution to that is not going to the supermarket when you’re hungry, and it works for me—actually, if I go to the supermarket when I’m stuffed, it works too much.
but you still have to remember where you store the food
I don’t remember ever having trouble locating stuff in a fridge.
A low-cost alternative is to have a fridge with a glass door. If you have privacy concerns or want to be extra fancy, you can use smart glass, although I would expect that it would raise its price significantly.
Seeing inside the fridge without opening the door is also good for energy conservation.
Reinvent the Refrigerator. Since its debut in the 1940s, it hasn’t changed much in design. Put a bunch of food in a large cooled box and hope you remember to eat its contents before it rots. There has been some lame attempts by slapping a LCD panel on the front with an RFID scanner, but you still have to remember where you store the food. I think automation and inventory management via mobile device is key. There is a lively discussion on quora right now, but I’d like to also invite people to poke holes and/or add value to my idea.
Basically it’s an automated parking garage that is shrunk down to the size of a fridge. You can learn more here I apologize in advance that I’m linking to FB, it’s just were the idea currently lives.
The benefit of the company is providing a greener fridge that helps people not waste food, which is a big problem right now. Americans waste 34 million tons of food waste each year. The amount of green house gases, labor, and transportation costs to produce food just to throw away food is maddening.
Obviously the first fridge will cost the same as a luxury car, since you’re basically cramming a robot into a fridge, but so was the first computer. I can see this fridge being the next big opportunity where everyone throws out the dumb fridge just like everyone did with their CRT for an LCD.
That being said, I welcome your comments and questions.
What if facial recognition technology became food recognition technology? More simple than chipping all food items.
I was thinking of this same sort of thing for a diet site. Rather than count calories, just photograph your plate with your hand next to it, and have the computer calculate for you.
The main issues I see with doing this in a fridge would be viewing angles and telling the difference between an old carton of OJ and a new carton of OJ.
How about repopularizing chest freezers? Inherently much more energy efficient, and freezing can help save food waste.
The trouble with chest freezers is they are a pain to get things from the bottom of. What I’ve seen happen is stuff remaining at the bottom of the freezer for years on end, eventually becoming freezer-burnt. But if you can automate the stacking and unstacking of things, this could be a good idea. You wouldn’t even need the entire top to be openable (or at least, you wouldn’t typically open the entire top), there could just be a smaller port for pulling things out of.
Another idea for encouraging more energy-efficient freezing would be a garage-sized (or bigger) freezer designed for community use. The bigger the better from an energy efficiency standpoint because that means less surface area per unit volume. I’m thinking fully automated storage and retrieval would make this work better as a community good (compared to a walk-in freezer), since there would be no need to employ a person to retrieve and keep track of things manually. You could basically just walk up to it, swipe your card, and tell it which items you want to retrieve, at which point they are deposited on a shelf for you to grab.
Like ice cream vending machines only giant and with peas and raspberries in. Neat!
It would be sort of like a vending machine, but stocked by the user and with basically whatever you want. However, suppliers probably wouldn’t charge too much to do deliveries, especially if there is high volume. Also, if you have an entire neighborhood eating out of the same freezer, there could be significant discounts from making group orders.
Community freezer reminds me of a concept I like. Grocery stores hold effectively no food in case of emergency. With each sale, a percentage fee would pay for similar foods to be stored for you at an extremely secure facility. What if amazon orders would double spend a couple items per order and hold them for you?
A good user interface could solve this, even without the RFID scanner. The touchscreen would display items in refrigerator, sorted by shelves.
Adding a new food: click “new food” icon, select the food from the list, click on the shelf. (You are supposed to do this after you have put the food inside.) Now the panel displays the food on the correct shelf.
I can’t see how a new fridge is a solution to that problem. If every time you go to the supermarket you buy more food than you’ll be able to eat before the next time you go there, eventually you’ll have to throw away some food, unless it lasts eternally. The standard solution to that is not going to the supermarket when you’re hungry, and it works for me—actually, if I go to the supermarket when I’m stuffed, it works too much.
I don’t remember ever having trouble locating stuff in a fridge.
A low-cost alternative is to have a fridge with a glass door. If you have privacy concerns or want to be extra fancy, you can use smart glass, although I would expect that it would raise its price significantly.
Seeing inside the fridge without opening the door is also good for energy conservation.