We’re elbow-deep in the internet of things, and our home appliances, gawd love ’em, are just going to keep getting smarter. In an effort to streamline the cramped kitchens of bachelor/ette pads everywhere, Frog Design, in collaboration with GE, came up with a concept for the most intelligent damn hotplate you’ve ever seen.
EcoSwitch is a five piece set that is meant to take care of all your cooking needs. The base station uses induction heat tech, which makes for a flat, no-need-for-hot-coils-or-gas-flames surface. Each of the four vessels — kettle, blender, slow cooker, and coffee maker — comes embedded with an RFID tag, which is activated when it comes in contact with the plugged-in hub; then, a gadget-specific touchscreen sensor will appear and you can do your culinary thang.
The whole idea is meant to cut down on the bulky clutter that comes with having a million appliances, each with their own motors and cords. Still, you’d need to put these containers somewhere, and if your counter space is that crunched it’s like you don’t have cabinets to spare either. Plus, few apartments don’t come with any kind of rangetop… right? So it would maybe be redundant to use this to, say, boil water, or something equally simple.
This idea and execution, however, is neat and hooo boy, the sleek black, brown and chrome on these clean-lined babies is beautiful (the glass versions are nice too). [DesignMind via PSFK]
