Thanks to Mark Britton from Media Stratego for this one.
The Digital Kitchen Study, conducted by the CABA Internet Home Alliance Research Council, indicates that consumers consider the kitchen a lot more than just a cooking area. The kitchen is more like the nerve center of the house and activities include entertaining friends, watching TV, doing homework, paying bills, talking on the phone, planning schedules and events and leaving messages and reminders for other family members.
The ideal components of a digital kitchen were demonstrated this month at the 2007 Kitchen/Bath Industry Show. One component is a digital calendar that can be viewed on a large screen and used for adding appointments as well as adding notes, and can be accessed from both the kitchen or over the internet. Another desired option is a recipe projection system, and they prefer wireless and even voice-recognition systems for controlling these functions. A possible application is projecting the recipe onto a surface in the kitchen from a small cabinet-mounted device. Those surveyed also wanted to monitor energy consumption by area (family room, swimming pool, etc.) and by appliance (hot water heater, etc.); to monitor energy usage by circuit in order to see where they might be wasting energy.
Obviously, a home control station is on the wish list. Consumers want a home control station in their kitchen that allows them to manage their HVAC and security systems. They also requested a screen where they can view the temperature inside and outside the home, with the ability to adjust the thermostat on a touch pad. They also want security with the ability to view live video of both the front and back of their house.
A universal charging station for PDAs and cell phones as well as wireless internet access were other functions listed as desirable by the survey respondents.
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