IP: Now they'll know what you eat to!

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Schoenfeld [xxx]
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2000 1:31 PM
To: Dave Farber
Subject: Now they'll know what you eat to!


Now the government will be able to track what you eat in your home!  Or
maybe I'm just paranoid.

Eric



http://www.techserver.com/noframes/story/0,2294,500155342-500192009-50082504
1-0,00.html

Home show unveils microwaves with a brain

Copyright  2000 Nando Media
Copyright  2000 Associated Press


By TAMMY WEBBER

CHICAGO (January 16, 2000 4:28 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Too
lazy to read the directions on that TV dinner? Soon you may not have to.
Your microwave oven will do it for you with the swipe of the package bar
code across a special sensor.

One such oven, being developed by Samsung with Rutgers University
researchers, will then contact the manufacturers' Internet site, read the
directions and cook the meal - even taking care of any necessary turning -
while you do something else.

The goal is to simplify people's lives by reducing the amount of time they
must spend preparing meals, said Joy Weis Daniel, product development
manager at Sharp Electronics Corp. at the International Housewares Show,
which opened Sunday in Chicago.

Sharp has developed a convection microwave oven that can download recipes
from the company's Web site. The microwave then gives step-by-step
instructions on preparing the meal - and automatically sets the time and
adjusts the power for roasting, baking, broiling and grilling.

"It does all the thinking," Daniel said.

Neither microwave is yet available to U.S. consumers. Sharp began selling
its product in Japan in October and hopes to introduce it in the United
States in the next year or so. Samsung officials say they hope to have
their oven in stores next year.

The Sharp microwave requires a separate PC that can be in any room. The
recipe is downloaded into a data box, which is then connected to the
microwave. Customers could only download recipes from the Sharp Web site.

The new-style of cooking isn't inexpensive. Sharp's new oven sells for
about $1,000 in Japan, said Heather Sweet, an associate marketing manager.

Samsung's bar code-reading oven will likely cost less than $500 when it
hits the market, said Dennis Joyner, the company's national marketing
manager.

By then, the unit may even be capable of keeping an inventory of groceries
and notifying users when it's time to restock, he said.

Eventually, it could be connected to a touch-screen computer that allows
access to the entire Internet - including everything from nutritional
information about the meal being cooked to weather and news reports - said
Rutgers University researcher Kit Yam, who is helping to develop the
technology.

So, why swipe a bar code when you can just read the package directions?

Yam gives soggy fish sticks as an example. Directions currently can't be
tailored to every microwave. If they're not right for the oven you're
using, you end up with food that has poor consistency and bad taste, he
said.

Americans are ready to take the next step in microwave technology,
especially if it means better, faster food, said Kota Chang, who was
checking out new products for a Pasadena, Calif., appliance manufacturer.

"I think it is the trend for the future," he said. "I just think people
are getting more and more lazy."