Kitchens Get Smarter at CES Tech Show, Not Yet in Many Homes
Big appliance-makers like Samsung, LG Electronics, GE Appliances, Whirlpool and Bosch are trying to reinvent the kitchen around internet connectivity
By Matt O'Brien and Joseph Pisani •
NBCUniversal, Inc.
In a bustling Las Vegas conference hall, a handpicked crop of tech innovators showed off their wares to reporters ahead of 2020’s CES tech conference. The exhibitors at the media-only preview event, CES Unveiled, include many of this year’s CES Innovation Award winners — with products ranging from smart sinks and door locks to entirely new ways to charge electronics...
Tell your refrigerator about your dietary preferences and it’ll concoct a recipe plan for the coming week, sending a shopping list to your smartphone when it notices you’ve run out of the right ingredients.
Counter-top robotic arms help chop veggies. Artificially intelligent oven cameras and internet-connected meat thermometers keep track of what’s cooking. And then — voila! — a stove-top camera can show off your culinary creations on Instagram.
These are some of the new “smart kitchen” tech features on display this week at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas. Appliance-makers are competing with one another to show off futuristic kitchen innovations they hope might resonate with younger consumers, knowing that once these appliances squeeze themselves into a home, they could stay for a while.
Just don’t expect to get much help at your local Home Depot anytime soon. There's also the challenge of getting consumers interested and keeping up with rapid changes in technology.
“The problem is that refrigerators are 10-year devices,” said food technology analyst Michael Wolf, who hosts a podcast on smart kitchens. “The sales personnel haven’t really asked about smart features and consumers really aren’t asking for them.”
That hasn't stopped big appliance-makers like Samsung, LG Electronics, GE Appliances, Whirlpool and Bosch from trying to reinvent the kitchen around internet connectivity.
Their mission: Appeal to consumers who are comfortable with smartphone apps. Target consumers include those looking to discover new step-by-step digital cooking instructions and consider themselves foodies even if they’re not necessarily expert chefs with a lot of free time.
“Food and food culture is just really one of the dominant things that Millennials and ‘Gen Z’ put on their social media,” Wolf said.
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The Huawei Mate X foldable smartphone is shown at the 2020 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 8, 2020.
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A model demonstrates Sublue’s White Mix Pro, a smart electric underwater scooter, during CES 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Jan. 8, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Attendees visit a full-scale mockup of the Bell Nexus 4EX air taxi concept at CES 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Jan. 8, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bell’s new fully electric air taxi concept is designed to carry four or five passengers for a distance of up to 60 miles at a speed of approximately 150 mph.
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Insta360 rep Hannah Wilson models the company’s Go camera, Jan. 7, 2020 at the 2020 CES in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Insta360 Go is a tiny stabilized camera that weight less than one ounce, which can be worn as a pendant or clip onto eyeglasses.
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The Galaxy Fold 5G seen at the Samsung booth during CES 2020, Jan. 8, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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The Segway S-Pod seen on opening day of CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 7, 2020.
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Royole FlexPai foldable smartphones are displayed at CES 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Jan. 7, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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The Smacircle S1 micro-mobility e-bike seen folded on opening day of CES in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 7, 2020.
Whistle Labs Inc. Fit, a wearable health and fitness tracker for pets, displayed at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 7, 2020.
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Yukai Engineering Inc. BOCCO Emo, a communication robot, seen at CES on Jan. 7, 2020.
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A Lamborghini Huracan Evo, featuring Amazon Alexa, on display at the Amazon Booth during CES 2020 at The Venetian Las Vegas on Jan. 7, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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The Mercedes-Benz AG Vision AVTR concept car displayed on Jan. 6, 2020. Daimler AG CEO Ola Kallenius unveiled a flashy concept vehicle inspired by the movie “Avatar,” as the German carmaker looks forward despite pressure to cut costs.
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Toyota’s LQ Level 4 concept car is displayed at the Toyota booth during CES 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Jan. 7, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Kim Hyun-suk, president and co-chief executive officer of Samsung Electronics Co., presents the Ballie robot at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Monday, Jan. 6, 2020. The Ballie is a “personal care” robot that follows its user.
Curved OLED screens seen above the LG Electronics booth during CES 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Jan. 7, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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The Gatebox, a voice-powered home assistant with virtual character, seen during CES Unveiled, Jan. 5, 2020, in Las Vegas. The device works like a home assistant or smart speaker, but with a virtual interactive character.
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A model of the Hyundai Motor Co. and Uber Technologies Inc. aerial taxi sits on display at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jan. 6, 2020.
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The Procter and Gamble Co. Charmin Rollbot seen at CES 2020’s press event at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Jan. 5, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. P&G's self-balancing robot was built to bring a roll directly to the toilet for anyone who finds themselves with an empty tube and no replacement in sight.
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The Kohler Numi 2.0 smart toilet, part of Kohler's smart bathroom collection, seen at a press event for CES 2020 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Jan. 5, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The "intelligent" toilet has Amazon Alexa built-in and features seat-warming and warm-water cleansing, among other functions.
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A person wears a Safe-Tec Smart Helmet during CES Unveiled at the CES 2020 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Jan. 5, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The smart helmet is a Bluetooth-enabled bone conduction speaker and microphone that also features LED strips and brake light for safety.
GE Appliances added a third, AI-powered oven camera to its Kitchen Hub system, which includes a 27-inch touch screen for interacting with friends and family or tuning into Netflix or Spotify while a watchful computer helps make sure you don't burn dinner.
Bosch is using its partnership with startup Chefling to send recipe commands to appliances such as refrigerators, which have cameras inside to keep track of inventory. Bosch is one of several companies using computer vision inside refrigerators to recognize items and how long they've been sitting there.
Whirlpool unveiled its Yummly smart thermometer, which can be pierced into a raw chicken. As your meal roasts, your phone will get alerts when the thermometer reaches the right temperature. Later this year, the $129 thermometer will also be able to follow recipes on the Yummly app and automatically adjust the temperature of Whirlpool’s smart ovens.
LG showed off an entire "smart" restaurant at its CES booth, complete with a robot to cook and make coffee, one to greet customers and a tabletop robot to take orders. The rounded, expressive robots are part of LG's CLOi line announced at CES in 2018. The South Korean company debuted the cooking Chefbot robot in November at a restaurant in Seoul.
Samsung also emphasized an artificial intelligence-laden kitchen that could help plan meals and monitor nutrition. The company also has a robotic kitchen aid — Bot Chef — a mechanical arm that can chop, whisk, stir and otherwise help prepare food.
John Locher/AP
The Bot Chef pours dressing into a salad during a demonstration at the Samsung booth during the CES tech show, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020, in Las Vegas. The robot is designed to help with cooking tasks, not to make a meal all on its own.
As with all internet-connected home devices, some of them raise privacy and security concerns. The devices record audio and video as they listen for your cooking commands and watch from your stove-top or from behind the milk cartons. Hackers could spy inside homes if the apps or devices have security flaws, as many do.
But even if appliance-makers are able to address those risks, some experts say they're still focusing too much on what's technologically possible and not on the improvements in the food experience that consumers might actually want.
“It fits the old school way they’ve been thinking about this — that every year or two they update the physical models,” said Frank Gillett, a tech analyst for Forrester Research. “They’re not thinking in terms of outcomes, which are meals. How do you shift the thinking from delivering the best stove to giving people the meal experience they want to have?”
Gillett predicts big structural changes in the food tech industry in the coming years. One far-out possibility: subscription services enabling consumers to commit to a favored supermarket, tech company or other provider. This company would deliver groceries and help run the appliances that work with its system.
Wolf is not as excited by all these AI-enabled bells and whistles as he is about other food tech innovations such as indoor hydroponics, the practice of growing plants without soil. A few big appliance-makers like LG are now experimenting with indoor gardening technology. Previously, the products were confined to startups like Indiana-based GroPod, which showed off a prototype that can sustain 60 plants that just need water and small nutrient pods.
But none of these smart appliance features and hydroponic gadgetry have taken off with consumers as much as simpler kitchen tech innovations that sit on counters and don't need internet connections.
“Two counter-top appliances have become mainstream: Instant Pot and air fryers," Wolf said. “Five years ago, no one was using those."
O'Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island. AP Technology Writer Rachel Lerman contributed to this report.
