.... Dude Hacks Microwave, Puts Manufacturers to Shame

Microwave manufacturers take note: You’re doing it wrong, and some guy from New Zealand just showed you up.

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Tyler Wells Lynch 
July 17, 2013

With all this talk about smart appliances and the “internet of things,” you’d think we’d have a microwave smart enough to follow elaborate cooking commands—or, at the very least, keep accurate time.

Nokia recently unveiled a nifty “smart” microwave with a touchscreen and...eye-tracking technology? That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t address the basic problems of most microwaves, such as the fact that so many foods require several stages of cooking, cooling, and sitting. Not to mention, few—if any—offer voice command or mobile control.

DINNER FOR ONE

As the lady  or man  of the house

prepares a meal

which is neither  stuffed grouse

nor a  properly hammered  and  spiced veal

but more likely  something truly American

like meatballs and spaghetti in  a pan,

reheated a la mode

by using a bar code..

Yet it seems a computer may still need to tell how long which buttons to push,

while on TV they might be showing many  dishes much more lush

which require hours of preparation

along with a skillful presentation.---

things which will never, even remotely,  get on their plate

no matter how patiently their stomachs might be willing to wait. ...

Instead, why not stake out 

a good neighborhood takeout?

hzl

1/16/15

Enter: Nathan Broadbent, a young software engineer from New Zealand who recently took this matter upon himself. Nathan was inspired by a Reddit postfittingly titled, “Food items should have QR codes that instruct the microwave exactly what to do...”

So, Nathan used a single-board computer called Raspberry Pi to develop a program that interacts with his home microwave, and which can be controlled remotely. Here are some of the features of Nathan’s brilliant home-mod microwave:

• Internet-synced clock
• Voice command control
• Barcode scanner for looking up cooking instructions from online database, which Broadbent created himself
• Mobile app phone for setting up cooking instructions for specific products
• Tweets after the timer is up

As for Samsung, Whirlpool, LG, and all the other big microwave manufacturers, what gives? You should’ve come up with this product years ago. Hire this man.

Check out Broadbent’s extensive blog post for a complete rundown of how he did it, and instructions for how you can do it—some technical skills