June Intelligent Oven • Hacker News Board

Re: June Intelligent Oven

#31

Post by profinger » Tue, Jun 09, 2015, 5:12 PM UTC

adam-a wrote: post #8

Seems like a fun idea, and it potentially allows really precise cooking with the internal probes too. Hopefully they don't go to overboard with the social media and wireless connection and focus on making something practical in the kitchen. For example, including over the air updates. I am imagining an XBox like scenario where you just want to cook dinner but you have to wait 20 minutes for it to update.

You just saying that has elevated my blood pressure. Firefox does the same thing. GRRR haha

Re: June Intelligent Oven

#32

Post by bryanlarsen » Tue, Jun 09, 2015, 5:15 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #27

dragonwriter wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any idea why an oven needs an "NVIDIA Tegra K1 with 2.3 GHz quad-core processor and 192 CUDA GPU cores"? Obviously, to power the food identification, analysis, and cooking program recommendation system that makes it a "Smart Oven".

Still seems like overkill, though. Just like the "beverage identification" in Vessyl, it presumably adds a reasonable amount to the cost of the thing (as well as another breakable component) when selecting "A chicken leg" in an app or something would be sufficient.

The camera also appears to be used to help determine when the food is done, to allow the oven to do things like turn itself up for the last 15 minutes to crisp the exterior.

And that's the important part. Nobody's going to pay $1500 for something that makes cooking easier. They'll appreciate it, but they won't pay for it. Lot's of people will pay $1500 for a gadget that makes cooking better.

Re: June Intelligent Oven

#33

Post by smackfu » Tue, Jun 09, 2015, 5:17 PM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #32

untog wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still seems like overkill, though. Just like the "beverage identification" in Vessyl, it presumably adds a reasonable amount to the cost of the thing (as well as another breakable component) when selecting "A chicken leg" in an app or something would be sufficient.

The camera also appears to be used to help determine when the food is done, to allow the oven to do things like turn itself up for the last 15 minutes to crisp the exterior. And that's the important part. Nobody's going to pay $1500 for something that makes cooking easier. They'll appreciate it, but they won't pay for it. Lot's of people will pay $1500 for a gadget that makes cooking better.

$1500 is still a lot of money in the kitchen space. Most people could buy a whole new set of appliances for that price.

Re: June Intelligent Oven

#34

Post by CHY872 » Tue, Jun 09, 2015, 5:18 PM UTC

zoba wrote: post #2

Any idea why an oven needs an "NVIDIA Tegra K1 with 2.3 GHz quad-core processor and 192 CUDA GPU cores"? Seems like overkill?

nVidia positioned the K1 towards the automotive industry (for all of driver assistance, computer vision etc) [0]. Since control systems there will be similar to control systems with this oven (knobs, dials etc) I'd imagine that there's simplifications there; furthermore there'll be decent product support etc.

SoCs cost at most like $20 each (if you have scale, which these guys won't)); the cost amounts from elsewhere. They'll form a comparatively small part of the total cost (which they can iterate on in later editions) but that make things simpler overall.

If they wanted to, they could just include dev boards in the devices; at $300 it would only be 10% of the price.

[0] - on-demand.gputechconf.com/gtc/2014/presentations/S4412-tegra-k1-automotive-industry.pdf

Re: June Intelligent Oven

#35

Post by nathan_long » Tue, Jun 09, 2015, 5:21 PM UTC

Sensing the internal temperature of a roast and cooking until it's done is a nice idea. Convection and aesthetics are good. Efficiency is good.

The HD camera, food detection, phone app, and touchscreen are waaaay overkill, in my opinion.

I don't want to have to put my oven on the WiFi, and it shouldn't need software updates. The useful functions ought to be simple enough to code once and ship.

Re: June Intelligent Oven

#36

Post by lambdaelite » Tue, Jun 09, 2015, 5:21 PM UTC

mumrah wrote: post #25

I'm skeptical how a small form factor oven like this could provide even heating that is required for many kinds of baking, even if it has convection fans. Also, having such a small volume means that most of the heat will escape when the door opens making it difficult to get that crucial "oven spring" for bread baking. It seems like a perfectly acceptable (albeit pricy) alternative to a toaster over, however.

> Also, having such a small volume means that most of the heat will escape when the door opens...

Supposedly, there's an air curtain to help with that problem.

> It seems like a perfectly acceptable (albeit pricy) alternative to a toaster over, however.

It may be an alternative to a toaster oven, but is that a good thing? Even the best toaster oven isn't very good, if you go by testing by Cooks Illustrated for example. I don't see how this one can perform any better given, as you point out, the physics limitations of a small oven.

Re: June Intelligent Oven

#37

Post by mattdotc » Tue, Jun 09, 2015, 5:23 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #29

mattdotc wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their 'special' price is $1500 if you pre-order. Looks like they want to charge double that after their promo period ends. Any good cook is not going to need some gimmicky gadget like this and will likely stay clear of this. You could get so many other great tools and more useful gadgety things for what they're asking. Immersion circulator, anyone?

"other great tools" I probably have $1500 in cookware and my knife collection and large stand mixer and just cooking stuff in general, but if you buy quality it lasts decades (or at least it used to), which might be a slightly longer time horizon than the typical gadget, or in this case, toaster oven.

Agreed one hundred percent. I try to stay away from single-purpose gadgets, myself, out of desire to save space, but there are a few things I look forward to buying in a few years' time.

A few (2-4?) good knives (full tang), a honing steel, a large wood cutting board, and a knife block would likely be the first things I'd recommend someone starting out to get, along with a basic knife skills class. In addition to buying quality items, caring for them properly will definitely serve you well.

Re: June Intelligent Oven

#38

Post by scottmwinters » Tue, Jun 09, 2015, 5:24 PM UTC

mattdotc wrote: post #19

RyanZAG wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you can show off your food cooking on your phone to (hopefully) envious commoners who can't afford to spend whatever this costs on an oven. - Signed, an envious commoner.

Their 'special' price is $1500 if you pre-order. Looks like they want to charge double that after their promo period ends. Any good cook is not going to need some gimmicky gadget like this and will likely stay clear of this. You could get so many other great tools and more useful gadgety things for what they're asking. Immersion circulator, anyone?

This thing is cool, really cool. So the novelty factor easily makes it worth more than another toaster oven. But I can go get another toaster oven on Amazon for 5% of that, so..yea, staying clear

Re: June Intelligent Oven

#39

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 09, 2015, 5:24 PM UTC

dragonwriter wrote: post #30

untog wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still seems like overkill, though. Just like the "beverage identification" in Vessyl, it presumably adds a reasonable amount to the cost of the thing (as well as another breakable component) when selecting "A chicken leg" in an app or something would be sufficient.

> Just like the "beverage identification" in Vessyl, it presumably adds a reasonable amount to the cost of the thing (as well as another breakable component) when selecting "A chicken leg" in an app or something would be sufficient. Selecting common recipes from the console is a fairly common feature even in inexpensive microwaves and toaster ovens. Moving that to a phone app isn't really much of a comparative sellin…

[deleted]

Re: June Intelligent Oven

#40

Post by dragonwriter » Tue, Jun 09, 2015, 5:26 PM UTC

smackfu wrote: post #33

bryanlarsen wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The camera also appears to be used to help determine when the food is done, to allow the oven to do things like turn itself up for the last 15 minutes to crisp the exterior. And that's the important part. Nobody's going to pay $1500 for something that makes cooking easier. They'll appreciate it, but they won't pay for it. Lot's of people will pay $1500 for a gadget that makes cooking better.

$1500 is still a lot of money in the kitchen space. Most people could buy a whole new set of appliances for that price.

> $1500 is still a lot of money in the kitchen space. Most people could buy a whole new set of appliances for that price.

So? The target market of early adopters for high-end kitchen gadgets are willing to pay pretty high premiums for unique features. (And aren't people who could replace their existing set of appliances for $1500; they're more like the people that spend close to half of that on a high-end VitaMix blender alone.)