A Dream Kitchen

A few years back, Microsoft was invited by Disneyland (Anaheim, CA) to design a "dream home" to showcase innovative product ideas and upcoming technology that could potentially make it into consumer's homes in the future. Microsoft also has a version of this Innoventions Dream Home at its campus in Redmond which I had the opportunity of exploring this summer while interning there.

One of the most intriguing ideas I saw was in the kitchen, where the countertop exhibited Surface-like qualities. The homeowner could look up (either by touch or by voice) a recipe and display it directly on the countertop, or could place a number of ingredients on the counter and have suggestions pop up for recipes that used them. In another example, the user placed a bottle of medicine on the counter and received an indication of whether the correct medicine had been chosen. The idea behind the display was that future light bulbs would behave more like projectors and would have sensors (either camera, infrared, or both) that could detect and recognize items beneath them.

While the idea seems somewhat farfetched, the notion of extending the Surface to be a kitchen counter sounds both exciting and practical. The number of applications are seemingly endless, from helping with cocktail recipes and keeping track of daily medicine doses, to helping with homework problems, or suggesting needed items from the grocery store.

Whether future technology uses these envisioned projector sensor bulbs or places them underneath the counter like a Surface, I have no doubt that such technology will make it into homes as it becomes cheaper and more reliable.