Sophisticated kitchen devices help tailor food preparation to individual tastes—just the way we like it.
At the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, the high-tech kitchen of the future featured push-button appliances that assembled automated meals made by machines. Fifty years on, technology is giving us more individualized—and efficient—control of home food preparation.
Computerized blenders, juicers and coffeemakers have revolutionized our favorite beverages. WiFi-connected devices, such as the WeMo-enabled Crock-Pot smart slow cooker, can be operated remotely via a smartphone app. Three-dimensional printing has moved into the kitchen, thanks to a product called ChefJet, which molds chocolate and other confections into creative shapes.
In an age in which the origin of our food matters, the AeroGarden Ultra LED—a dirt-free hydroponic system for growing fruits and vegetables—could take a spot by the kitchen window. And water for those plants may be extracted from the air using the Air X water generator, a machine that condenses incoming air to produce water that is subsequently cleaned by a series of filters and ultraviolet light.
What does the future hold? While appliance makers will eventually embed countertops with electronics so devices can run more efficiently, Miele raised eyebrows with talk of a sensor able to scan your hand to measure immediate nutritional needs—and that is about as specific as one can get. Here are ten products to try now.
Air X Water Generator
To produce drinking water out of the air: That’s the promise of the Air X water generator from Untapped Water Systems, a company based in Taiwan and Edmonton, Ontario. About the size of a water cooler, Air X draws in air, condenses it and passes the new water through a series of filters, ultraviolet lights and other proprietary technology to kill bacteria. Air X can yield about 20 liters of hot or cold water daily (in conditions of 80 degrees and 60 percent humidity) and uses no chemicals.
ChefJet 3D Printer
Layer-by-layer 3-D printing has captured attention by making plastic objects on the spot, but a 3-D printer that can make dessert is bound to whet appetites. The ChefJet countertop 3-D printer shapes chocolate and other confectionaries in ways that would be difficult using traditional methods. ChefJet ($5,000) is limited to monochrome creations, but ChefJet Pro ($10,000) produces multicolored designs (like those pictured here). .
AeroGarden Ultra LED
Many kitchen windowsills are home to potted plants like basil. Now you can grow vegetables with a NASA-proven technology using dirt-free hydroponics and fast-growth LED lighting in various colors (white speeds growth, blue yields bigger harvests, red is reserved for tomatoes and peppers). Those with a brown thumb will appreciate the device’s computerized brain, which optimizes nutrients for whatever plants you choose to grow. $350; aerogarden.com.
Kitchens of the future are always fascinating and usually dead wrong. We are looking ahead to 2025 with ideas for the Home of the Future, and they are not so wacky.
"This isn't about the Jetsons or pie in the sky ideas," says Lou Lenzi, director for GE Appliances' Industrial Design Operation. Home 2025 is about reality-based innovation that will be possible over the next decade. To project what the Home of 2025 may look like, we first took a high level look at where we think society, culture, and technology is taking us and intersected that with ways in which we could make our lives less complex and more enjoyable.
One of the nicest thing about this is that for example GE Appliances assumes that people actually cook; most kitchens of the future these days have 3D printers turning out our dinner. It's also nice to know that people will still appreciate Global G-series knives.
Preparing healthy meals is made easy with the features of this preparation center. Produce can be easily accessed from sliding mesh dividers which allow humid air to circulate evenly, keeping it fresher longer. The sink is equipped with cleaning, drying and cutting areas. An automatically watered herb garden is within reach to boost the flavor of your meals.
With the in-sink dishwasher in GE's Home 2025, wash small loads in just 5 minutes. Integrated sensors in the sink alert you when chemicals or bacteria are present in your produce, so you can keep washing your produce until the readout says the contaminants are gone.
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