Whirlpool Smart Kitchen Concept Demos the Future of a Day of Care

At this year’s CES, Whirlpool brand’s Interactive Kitchen of the Future focuses on ways technology can help families care for each other by thinking ahead, guiding and helping personalize the cooking experience – all day long. The Whirlpool Global Consumer Design (GCD) group has evolved its conceptual smart kitchen to learn a family’s likes and routines so the environment and appliances can anticipate their unique needs and adapt to unforeseen changes – from getting through the morning rush to unexpectedly taking care of a sick child.

“We believe the most powerful innovations are inspired by human behaviors and needs,” said Tony Kirk, senior manager, GCD Advanced Studio. “A team of dedicated specialists analyzed a typical family routine and matched that with the latest emerging technologies to create Whirlpool brand’s vision of how a family will cook and clean in the near future.”

Whirlpool brand believes that a smart home should complement what families are already doing to care for each other and adapt with features like:

– Anticipating: The kitchen syncs the family’s schedule with meal preparation to anticipate when the school bus will arrive or track progress on their “to-do list.” Recognizing the school bus is only three minutes away and there isn’t enough time for morning oatmeal prompts the suggestion to add a breakfast bar to a bagged lunch. And, a signal from the baby monitor notes when it’s time to warm a baby bottle on the induction cooktop.

– Guided and Personalized Cooking: Using image and speech recognition, the smart system catalogues each family member’s favorite foods and nutritional goals to create personalized recipe suggestions, and recognizes a change in plan when the cook decides to improvise and make a quesadilla instead of a grilled cheese. The suite also displays cooking alerts and reminders to “flip” or “stir” displayed on the Smart Backsplash.

– Adapting to Consumer Need: Families can use the in-sink dishwasher to quickly clean a few cups and plates from the morning dash without having to run the entire dishwasher.

– Sensing and Reacting: Smart vessels sense their contents and automatically heat or cool to the ideal temperature, and the presence of packaged goods will auto-set a microwave.

Whirlpool brand also created one of the first immersive virtual reality experiences in the company’s portfolio, so everyone can step into the Interactive Kitchen of the Future and experience Whirlpool’s vision for tomorrow firsthand at www.whirlpool.com/future.