Hello,

On Sunday, January 14, I visited the International Housewares
Show at McCormick Place here in Chicago where I live.  I wanted
to check out the new microwave oven that automatically cooks food
to the directions listed on the package.  The oven cooks the food
to precision after the end user enters a code that is listed on
the package.  I learned about the oven from an announcement sent
to various blindness mailing lists.  I contacted the company and
discovered that the oven was being demonstrated right in my own
backyard in a few days.  Being a geek, I could not resist taking
the trip down to the huge convention center complex to find out
more.  After strolling past indoor rivers, fountains that sprayed
water three stories into the air, a string quartet, space
organizers, hundreds of coffee makers, and cutlery sets, I found
the booth of LG Electronics on the far side of a building that is
across Lakeshore Drive.

LG Electronics produces several home appliances.  They are the
folks that brought us the horrendously hyped Internet
refrigerator.  Yes, indeed, there was an Internet refrigerator on
display.  There is a flat panel display on the front door with a
microphone and speakers.  The refrigerator is only sold overseas
and costs about $10,000.  It will be likely rolled out in the
United States next year.  LG Electronics also had a washing
machine hooked up to the Internet.  It seemed that the
manufacturer was ready for the Internet but the Internet is not
yet up to the expectations demanded by such a device or the end
user of such an appliance.

On the other side of the large corner booth was the demonstration
and display of the True Cook Plus oven.  The oven is like most
microwaves:  a rectangular plastic box with a panel of buttons on
the right side.  For this microwave oven, the controls are on a
flat, touch panel.  The spacing of the different items is far
enough apart that it can easily be labeled in braille with Dymo
tape in a couple of hours.  Jay Leventhal of the American
Foundation for the Blind dropped by the booth to say that he
could help create a braille plate to go on top of the panel as
well.

Food products will contain a sticker near the corner of the
package with a numeric code in 24 point type and in braille.  The
codes were generally two or three digits in length but can be as
many as nine digits.  The food manufacturer chooses the code and
the number of digits, according to Bob Thompson a partner in a
business called Microwave Science.  The end user simply enters
the number and the oven instantly starts cooking the food to the
temperature and length of time called for in the directions.  The
oven can also work as a regular microwave with the end user
entering the cooking time and cooking temperature.

The oven is a stand-alone solution never needing to be connected
to an outside source for data.  Net geeks might be confused by
the initials of the Total Cook Plus microwave.  It does not need
to be connected to the Internet or use TCP/IP transmission
standards.  Instead, the oven is programmed with the ten million
possible permutations that could be used to cook food in a
microwave.  The cooking instructions are fed into the appliance
manufacturer's database and a number is generated.  The food
manufacture can accept that number or work with the appliance
company to create one that is shorter or easier to remember.

If you are razzed by the potential of this solution, stay tuned
for the next generation of this product.  I am told that the oven
would contain a sensor that automatically reads the code on the
product when the food is placed in the oven.  It starts cooking
when the oven door is closed or after a start button is pressed.
The final design hasn't been worked out yet.  Both kinds of ovens
could aid blind persons by eliminating the need to copy or mark
down cooking instructions in an alternate format.  The second
oven that automatically cooks might aid another disability group
as well.  Those with cognitive disabilities, such as those with
mental retardation or certain kinds of head injuries could be
able to better prepare food more easily as they do not have to
follow an instruction set.  For the blind at least, the oven
appears to be an effective tool in making life easier and much
more efficient.

This was of course a demonstration rather than an extended
opportunity of a few days or weeks to fully use and try the
product, making a review possible.  I look forward to learning
more about the oven and hearing from blind end users of their
experiences with the product.  The future is now and today is the
start of an era where knowledge and information is built into the
products we buy.

kelly

To find out more, go to the product's web site at
http://www.TrueCookPlus.com


You can also contact Bob Thompson of Microwave Science
at 770-967-1234
mailto:[log in to unmask]


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