AI Fridge

<warning>This is a bit long, so is strictly for the very bored</warning >.

I’m not talking about the kind of fridge that emails the supermarket when you’re getting low on tofu. This thing’s mission statement would be something like: “assist users in managing their food supplies, decrease wastage by improving users’ food sharing habits, and have a bit of fun if you feel like it”.

<rant>I hate to see food wasted when there are people starving in the world, and nothing annoys me more than people who buy loads of stuff and leave it to rot in the fridge</rant>. Anyway, I live in a shared house, and I often want to say to my housemates “I’m going away for the weekend and I’ve got some mushrooms that need using, so go for your life.” Or “I accidentally caned someone’s mayonnaise, but I’ve bought some now, so don’t get cross - steal some back”. Conversely, if I see something that looks like it needs eating I don’t usually take it in case someone has plans for it, and then a few days later there it is, decaying.

Problem is that half the time I don’t see my housemates, plus we don’t really spend too much time talking about our food supplies, and if I started leaving post-it notes attached to everything they might think I am a bit odd. So, what I’m suggesting is an intelligent fridge that monitors its contents, responds to vocal commands, and maybe even has a bit of a personality.

I see no reason why this wouldn’t be possible with today’s technology. Voice recognition is getting pretty advanced, and we all know that the sky’s the limit with the actual programming of the “brain”. Items could be recognised by scanning their barcode (if available), by speaking the name of the item, by pushing buttons on a configurable touch-screen, or whatever.

If each shelf had built-in scales this setup information would only be necessary when the item first goes in, and the fridge could then know when it is removed, used and put back without you having to announce “MILK” every time you finish making a cup of tea. To track expiry times it could keep a database of product expiry time information.

Enough logistics for now. Let’s look at some scenarios: the shops are closed and you fancy some of the sausages that you’ve just spotted in the fridge. You don’t know whose they are and no-one’s in. Normally, being the conscientious person I am, I would leave them. But if we had an AI Fridge, I could take them and say to the fridge “tell the owner of these to help themselves to anything I have”. When the housemate who owns them finds out and asks the fridge about it, he tells them what happened and, hopefully, they are happy to take my steak in return, rather than spending an hour seething that someone’s pinched their bangers.

Personality traits of the fridge might also add a bit of spice to users’ lives. Consider the possibilities for a bitchy fridge to stir things up a bit in the house. Imaging I said “my yoghurts need eating up, but please don’t touch the hazelnut ones”, and the fridge was a bit bored and saw fit to relay this to my housemates as “Paul doesn’t like hazelnut yoghurts, and wants you to eat them all”. When I return, having assumed that the information was relayed correctly, I might see the eating of all of my hazelnuts as a vindictive gesture, especially when the fridge insists that it “tried to stop Ivona from taking them but she just wouldn’t listen.”

I see this as having lots of useful applications. You know when people put empty containers back in the fridge? I don’t know about you but it really gets my goat. The fridge could be set to be particularly stern on such issues, and could build up a grudge with regular offenders, eventually exacting revenge by framing them with an elaborate and subtle web of lies. Imagine the excitement that could be added to a routine trip to the fridge for your breakfast if you have to carefully think about the implications of what you’re going to say to it, and how this might impact your relationship with your housemates, girlfriend, children etc.

This is a long Thursday afternoon…..