An abstract for friends...
Light Kitchen is the first step toward a grand dream I've had for a long time: giving proficient cooks access to previously unattainable senses and taking the load off of beginner cooks. I'm talking scanning your kitchen for warm spots to let dough rise; I'm talking predicting the doneness of your steak with infrared readings; I'm talking projected overlays of cutting lines.
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Light Kitchen is a framework to make these dreams come true. The fact of the matter is that these other features were in development, it just turns out they're about as difficult as the sound... With more time and even potentially some more fun sensors, it can be done! You can even see the cut line projections on a carrot in the video.
This project allowed me to mix my two loves, computers and cooking, in a weird and whacky way. This definitely won't be the last time I dive deep on that intersection, but for now, it's on to the next adventure.
For the extra curious...
Light Kitchen uses a projection mapping / computer vision loop as the front-end for an expert system. The expert system calculates and optimizes routines, in this case, steps of recipes, in order to find the most time-efficient tree of steps.
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More than a tech demo, the intent behind Light Kitchen is to demonstrate the innovative future interfaces that can come from proper design thinking, specifically around context. Society has become saturated with touchscreens for their "high-tech" feel. However, there are many cases where with more thought, one would realize they are entirely out of place. Should a parking meter that sits in the sun have an LCD screen? Should your car's buttons be a screen with no tactile feedback? If you're interested, the technical details of Light Kitchen as well as my thoughts on future interface design can be found in my thesis.
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This project would not have been possible without the amazing people at CMU's Undergraduate Research Office, where Light Kitchen was accepted for a grant, as well as the absolutely incredible faculty, especially Dr. Raja Sooriamurthi, my honors thesis advisor.