We’re nonetheless sifting via a number of the cool product demos from CES final month, and one which caught my eye was the demo by NXP of a presence-sensing cooktop powered by an embedded MCU. In accordance with the corporate, the system used a Neural Processing Unit that runs the machine studying and facial-recognition algorithms inside the system somewhat than counting on a cloud-based compute. The demo featured a tool management interface from Diehl Controls.
As could be seen within the video under (taken by TIRIAS Analysis Principal Analyst Francis Sideco), NXP spokesperson Thomas Herbert reveals that you may activate the burner with both contact or movement sensing (together with movement sensing with cooking mitts on). From there, the system is utilizing facial recognition to detect if an individual is inside native proximity of the cooktop. In accordance with Herbert, presence detection comes into play in a situation the place there’s a vital state, such because the pan getting too sizzling and there’s water boiling over. If the system detects a vital state and nobody is standing across the range, it would shut off the warmth and may ship an alert to the particular person through a Matter (an open-source sensible residence connectivity commonplace) enabled gadget to alert the prepare dinner that the system has intervened on their behalf.
The demo is attention-grabbing to me in a few contexts. One is that, as we’ve written about right here on the Spoon, the primary purpose for fires within the residence is because of cooking mishaps, and enabling your stovetop or different cooking home equipment to acknowledge each anomalies in addition to the presence of somebody might be an actual gamechanger, akin to the dip in vehicle accidents in recent times because of the widespread prevalence of blindspot detection methods in trendy automobiles.
The second context that’s attention-grabbing is that it may develop into a major know-how in aiding aging-in-place eventualities, notably for seniors who develop into slightly extra forgetful as they age. One of many key determinants of whether or not people can proceed to dwell independently is their potential to feed themselves, and by offering “blind spot” detection like this, my guess is this might prolong many seniors’ potential to dwell independently for years.
