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Robot Kitchen
Aug. 28th, 2011 11:24 amI first stated daydreaming about a robot kitchen back in the 80's. I imagined some kind of huge plotter/printer with an interchangeable print head. It could stir things on the stove and pour things from one vessel to another and wash its own dishes too.
The trickiest part, back then, was to imagine sharing that robot kitchen with a human: how to let a human participate in the fun stuff without risk of injury? At that point I realized that the problem was poorly defined. I like washing dishes and I like cooking. Why do I *want* a robot kitchen?
This morning I made french toast, and was idly wondering how much egg mixture each slice of bread could effectively absorb. the obvious answer came to me, "A french toast factory would know this information!"
And I suddenly realized that the robot kitchen exists today- it's just been outsourced. Between the deli section of the supermarket and the freezer section, plus every automated vending machine from coffee to a fried food vending machine, the automat is with us. There's just a lot of transport involved.
So now I have to re-think the problem in terms of where the food is grown, where the eaters of the food are eating it, and where the logical place to put the robot is, in between the two.
I may still have my priorities mixed up.
The trickiest part, back then, was to imagine sharing that robot kitchen with a human: how to let a human participate in the fun stuff without risk of injury? At that point I realized that the problem was poorly defined. I like washing dishes and I like cooking. Why do I *want* a robot kitchen?
This morning I made french toast, and was idly wondering how much egg mixture each slice of bread could effectively absorb. the obvious answer came to me, "A french toast factory would know this information!"
And I suddenly realized that the robot kitchen exists today- it's just been outsourced. Between the deli section of the supermarket and the freezer section, plus every automated vending machine from coffee to a fried food vending machine, the automat is with us. There's just a lot of transport involved.
So now I have to re-think the problem in terms of where the food is grown, where the eaters of the food are eating it, and where the logical place to put the robot is, in between the two.
I may still have my priorities mixed up.
