My toaster (and most others I know) has various settings depending on how well-done you like your toast. These settings seem to range from not done at all to 146% cremated. There doesn't seem to be an in-between on my toaster... and that's just for a couple of slices of bread. Heaven help you if you want to toast a few slices, maybe some brown bread, some white bread, a couple of thicker slices, and some frozen bread too.

By "watching" the toast, the toaster could cut itself off and eject the toast when it reached a certain colour - that way, all your toast would come out to your liking, regardless of thickness of bread, temperature of bread/toaster at start of process, etc.

The colour of your toast could perhaps be calibrated when you purchase the toaster? Or you could re-set it as your tastes change - or indeed you could have 4 or 5 settings, so each member of the family can have their toast the way they like it. For calibration, you could simply read off a colour chart - or for more precise control, perhaps you could toast a slice of bread under the grill to just the way you like it, and then show this to the toaster in "read" mode (although that's possibly taking the whole toast thing to a slightly extreme degree).
-- kmlabs, Apr 19 2005

(?) Kitchenaid KTT http://shop.hardwar...F-Kitchenaid_KTT460
[skinflaps, Apr 19 2005]

Rowenta Toaster http://www.surround...Rowenta/TOASTER.asp
Toaster with an optical sensor, "providing the desired result time and time again" [Freefall, Apr 19 2005]

A toast to toasted art.. http://www.toaster.org/hellokitty.html
or corporate logos anyways., [Giblet, Apr 20 2005]

This wouldn't be such a great idea were it not for the fact that toaster timers NEVER stay in calibration. Hopefully this would.

<edit> Haven't tried the Kitchenaid yet though.
-- wagster, Apr 19 2005


I thought this might be some sort of laser toaster. Maybe a scanning laser, so you could print stuff on your toast.
-- ldischler, Apr 19 2005


A bit pricey for a toaster, but see link for "Rowenta toaster". I'd say that makes this idea fully baked.
-- Freefall, Apr 19 2005


//I thought this might be some sort of laser toaster. Maybe a scanning laser, so you could print stuff on your toast.//

Me too. Neutral vote for disappointment, pending name change to something more appropriate. This isn't an optical toaster, because that would mean it toasts optically. It just...opthamalizes toast?
-- disbomber, Apr 19 2005


Okay, I've changed the name, your comments regarding misleading titles are well taken on board. I still remember the crushing disappointment of discovering that "Aurora Skywriting" was nothing to do with huge banners being towed by spy-planes.

Rowenta Toaster: //I'd say that makes this idea fully baked//

[Freefall] I'd say you're dead right.
-- kmlabs, Apr 20 2005



random, halfbakery