Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
Place this device firmly in the “useless gadgets you never knew existed and now you can’t possibly live without” category: an infrared microwave that shows you a heat map of your food while it’s cooking, making it virtually impossible to burn popcorn or undercook burritos.
As explained by the good folks over at Slate.com, the device is called the Heat Map Microwave, and it was invented by engineer Mark Rober (who worked on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, so he clearly knows his stuff) as a way to see the temperature of food and known when it’s done.
As the food begins heating, its color would change from blue to red to yellow. Once it turns white (based on its predetermined optimal temperature), you either hit the stop button, or allow the microwave’s built-in sensors to detect that the food’s done and turn itself off automatically.
In addition to placing an infrared sensor in the top of the microwave, Rober outfitted the device with a screen in the door and said that he eventually hopes to link it to a smartphone app that lets people remotely monitor the internal temperature of the food and add cooking time as needed.
Wouldn’t external heat block the view of internal heat, though?
During a recent interview, Gizmodo asked Rober how his unit would solve the age-old problem in which some types of food (namely microwave burritos) came out scorching hot on the outside and cold as ice on the inside. Wouldn’t the external heat block the view of internal heat?
“I wondered the same but according to all my testing once you are evenly heated on the outside then it meant you were good on the inside,” the engineer told the website. “Whenever it was still cold or even just room temp there was some kind of uneven heating on the outside still.”
He went to explain that he tested the device by trying different types of foods and monitoring the results, and that one of the more difficult things to get right was the upper heat limit at which the image would “go white.” Rober found that 160 degrees Fahrenheit appeared to be the optimum temperature for achieving what he called “the desired hotness that we’re used to expecting.”
No Kickstarter, here
The engineer also explained that there were several different ways that the software could be manipulated in order to interpret the heat-map images. For instance, he said that users could take a top down view, and essentially extrapolate what the likely correctional heating would be.
Rober has patented his design, but if you’re looking to support his work, put your wallet away – he is not putting the invention on a crowdfunding website. Instead, he’s asking people to pop on over to his website and sign a petition to let potential investors known that there is a market for the unique kitchen device. Signing up will also net you emailed updates on his efforts.
Best of all, once you do sign the petition, you’re rewarded with a note of appreciation which states, “Thank you! With your continued support, we can help eradicate frozen burrito syndrome.” And really, isn’t that what it’s all about – the burritos?
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