Professional chefs can train for years to learn exactly how to perfectly roast a chicken or bake the perfect strawberry pie. But there may be a new way for us untrained wannabe chefs to achieve similar results at home.
A San Francisco startup has created June, an “intelligent” oven that is able to automatically recognize the food you put in and cook it perfectly every time.
The countertop oven, which is big enough to fit larger items like pizzas and roasts, is equipped with a five-inch touch screen display, digital scale and Nvidia processors. Its glass door has been specially treated so it won’t get hot and its internal heating elements are made of carbon fiber.
But what really sets the Wi-Fi-enabled June apart from other appliances is the software and hardware that power its food recognizing abilities.
Inside the oven is a wide-angle HD camera which, when combined with machine intelligence algorithms and the oven’s built-in scale, enables June to detect the type of food in the oven and how long it needs to cook. Right now, the company says it “recognizes a set of common foods,” like meats and bread, but the system will get more accurate over time and over the air updates will expand its database.
“Right now we are experts in steak, chicken, white fish, salmon, bacon, cookie dough, brownie mix, toast, bagels, and hamburger buns,” June’s CEO and cofounder, Matt Van Horn,told The Verge.
The oven also comes with a companion app that keeps tabs on the progress of your dish and sends alerts when items are done, or close to being done. You can also use the app as a remote control to adjust the oven’s temperature or turn it off entirely. The app also supports live streaming from the oven’s camera, so home cooks can monitor the progress of their meal remotely. Additionally, the app has a curated collection of recipes to help users plan meals.
Finally, the June oven comes with a core temperature probe that tracks the internal temperature of what you’re cooking, which can come in handy for temperature-dependent dishes like steaks and baked goods.
The oven costs $1,495 during a pre-order period — the company says it anticipates shipping the first orders in spring 2016 — and will cost $2,995 after July 10.
Source: Mashable