What's For Dinner? Robot Knows

Fellow resident blogger Hannes once sarcastically mentioned CR4's "Ditch-Your-Devices-And-Hide-In-A-Cave" series of blog entries. The truth is, we spend so much time focusing on the cynical side of technology applications, we sometimes overlook some of the most important ones; even the littlest of accomplishments, such as roboticizing cooking, deserve our candor on CR4.

For example, even if you LOVE to cook, it can be a hassle cooking every day. Not to mention it takes creativity to come up with different meals. Even alternating cooking duties with your wife, girlfriend, roommate, dog, etc. can get exhausting. Everything my girlfriend makes is on a tortilla. Everything I make comes from the grill.

Well, now Watson is the one behind each meal's culinary menu. Watson is the IBM supercomputer that beat Jeopoardy! champions Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in 2011, followed that by learning and using the Urban Dictionary, and now does database searches to help medical professionals diagnose patients. Because software is often altered for many applications, Watson has been paired with Bon Appétit magazine to supply an endless list of unique recipes.

It started out as Watson paired with a food truck at 2014's South by Southwest music fest in Austin, Texas. Customers picked a cuisine and an ingredient, and then Watson asked questions such as ingredients the customers didn't like, or how adventurous they were feeling with their palate. Based on an immense database that Watson used to find food pairings and inspiration, the food truck crew made orders to spec. Watson even provided predictions to how the food might taste, and customers and crew were reportedly very surprised by some of the results.

Now, Chef Watson is available as a beta that provides personalized menu options based on what you like and is already in your kitchen. Eventually IBM plans to roll this technology out across many industries, as any industry that can be reduced to a recipe can be optimized by Watson's insight. That could mean Watson helps people find the perfect car, help chemists make new hygiene products, or help you pick out clothes (yes, even bathing suits).

That's fine for avoiding the, "What do you want for dinner?" dialogues, but someone still has to make dinner, right? Well since now is "the future" that's taken care of too. Recall the robo-chef that was announced last month and is set to be on sale in 2017. Two 6-axis robot arms are outfitted with two hands that are powered by 20 motors, 24 joints and 129 sensors. Together they seamlessly complete common kitchen tasks, and can help a human chef or make a meal completely. An integrated dishwasher and refrigerator are planned as well.

Moley Robotics is planning its own separate recipe database for use with the robo-chef. But I think it's clear to everyone that a robot that can decide what's for dinner, make it, and then clean up, is as close to Rosie Jetson as we've ever been.

But is it worth $16,000? That is the expected cost of the robo-chef alone, and who knows how much a Watson license might add on to that. But that's a bargain for a full-time personal chef.