by Kelly Pierce
(Editor’s Note: Kelly Pierce is a co-founder of Digit-Eyes: the Chicago Blind Computer User Network. We are happy that he spent a recent Sunday afternoon at the home show at which this appliance was demonstrated, and that he chose to share his impressions of the microwave oven with members of VICUG-L, the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List, and with readers of “The Braille Forum.”)
On Sunday, January 14, I visited the International Housewares Show at McCormick Place here in Chicago where I live. I wanted to check out the new microwave oven that automatically cooks food according to the directions listed on a package. The oven cooks the food to precision after the end user enters a code that is listed on the package. I learned about the oven from an announcement sent to various blindness mailing lists. When I contacted the company, I found that the oven would be demonstrated right in my own backyard in a few days. Being a geek, I could not resist taking the trip down to the huge convention center complex to find out more. After strolling past indoor rivers, fountains that sprayed water three stories into the air, a string quartet, space organizers, hundreds of coffee makers, and cutlery sets, I found the booth of LG Electronics on the far side of a building that is across Lakeshore Drive.
LG Electronics produces several home appliances. They are the folks that brought us the Internet refrigerator. Yes, indeed, there was an Internet refrigerator on display. There is a flat panel display on the front door with a microphone and speakers. Currently, the refrigerator is only sold overseas and costs about $10,000. It will likely be rolled out in the United States next year. LG Electronics also had a washing machine hooked up to the Internet. It seemed that the manufacturer was ready for the Internet long before the Internet had come up to the expectations demanded by such a device or the imagination of the typical user of a refrigerator!
On the other side of the large corner booth was the demonstration and display of the True Cook Plus oven. The oven is like most microwaves: a rectangular plastic box with a panel of buttons on the right side. For this microwave oven, the controls are on a flat touch panel. The different choices are spaced far enough apart so that labeling them in braille would not present a problem. Jay Leventhal of the American Foundation for the Blind dropped by the booth to say that he could help create a braille plate to go on top of the panel for users who might not have the necessary sighted assistance or braille labeling equipment.
Here’s How It Works
Food products that we buy from a conventional supermarket will contain a sticker near the corner of the package with a numeric code written in 24-point type and in braille. The codes on packages which were being displayed at the booth were generally two or three digits in length but can be as many as nine digits. The food manufacturer chooses the code and the number of digits, according to Bob Thompson, a partner in a business called Microwave Science. The end user simply enters the number and the oven instantly starts cooking the food at the temperature and length of time called for in the directions. The oven can also work as a regular microwave with the end user entering the cooking time and cooking temperature.
The oven is a stand-alone solution never needing to be connected to an outside source for data. Net geeks might be confused by the initials of the True Cook Plus microwave. It does not need to be connected to the Internet or use TCP/IP transmission standards. Instead, the oven is programmed with the 10 million possible permutations that could be used to cook food in a microwave. The cooking instructions are fed into the appliance manufacturer’s database and a number is generated. The food manufacturer can accept that number or work with the appliance company to create one that is shorter or easier to remember.
If you are intrigued by the potential of this solution, stay tuned for the next generation of this product. I am told that the oven will contain a sensor that automatically reads the code on the product when the food is placed in the oven. It starts cooking when the oven door is closed or after a start button is pressed. The final design hasn’t been worked out yet.
Both kinds of ovens (the current and future generations) could aid blind people by eliminating the need to copy or mark down cooking instructions in an alternate format, and the next generation might aid people with other kinds of disabilities as well — since it will eliminate the need to follow an instruction set altogether. For people who are blind, the currently available appliance appears to be an effective tool for making life easier and the task of preparing food much more efficient.
Of course, I only experienced a demonstration of the product, rather than an opportunity to spend a few days testing it, which would make a more comprehensive review possible. I look forward to learning more about the oven and hearing from blind end users about their experiences with the product. The future is now and today is the start of an era where knowledge and information are built into the products we buy.
To find out more about the True Cook Plus microwave oven, go to the product’s web site at http://www.TrueCookPlus.com. You may contact Bob Thompson of Microwave Science at (770) 967-1234, or e-mail him, BobThompson@TrueCookPlus.com.