03.11.01
Thinking out loud, unfortunately
Original Posting: 2/16/2001 05:02:21 PM
How about an automated refrigerator? What would this really take?
Let’s assume that the box will be the same size as the usual fridge. If we have an alternative entry (like a freezer door) for over sized items, we could make a little door (1ft square?) that could hinge on the bottom. Pulling the hinge would produce a shelf that you would put the item on. The pressure sensor would retract the shelf into the box, and laser scanners would find the UPC symbol. (If it’s not found you can label it by voice command.)
The platform is lifted up and down by a central platform. The platform can rotate. The platform is made up of alternating fixed and moving rods so that the moving rods can rise a couple inches and smoothly move into the particular slot in the fridge, which is made of a shelf with a similar system of alternating fixed and non-exisiting rods.
The platform is in a center empty colum of the fridge, like a glass elevator inside of a building’s atrium.
This could be the first piece of an automated kitchen I suppose.