Taking a common household cooking appliance like a slow cooker and making it smarter can provide many benefits to home chefs, including more accurate measurement of ingredients and personalization of recipes. But adding things like connectivity and software aren't free, requiring engineers to figure out ways to add needed functionality without driving up costs significantly.
Fierce Electronics spoke with Harold Books, CHEF iQ director of engineering, on how he and his team developed the company's one-of-a-kind smart cooker--which got its start on Kickstarter--in less than two years while keeping the BOM under control.
FE: What do you call this device? It seems like a hybrid between a slow cooker and a pressure cooker.
Brooks: The CHEF iQ Smart Cooker is the world’s smartest multi-cooker. The connectivity feature allows consumers to directly connect the CHEF iQ App to the hardware, for effortless cooking. Users can send cooking data right from the app directly to the Smart Cooker with a touch of a button and conversely, can also use the Smart Cooker to send updates to the app. The app caters to the individual and allows personalization of recipes to suit the exact needs of every user. On the app, users can access step-by-step Guided Cooking and prep videos to ensure quality dishes for every skill level.
Additionally, the Smart Cooker’s advanced hardware was designed with a full-color LCD screen that provides vivid detail and responds to touch, offering a more user-friendly experience. Built-in smart sensors are also able to measure weight, temperature, and pressure for perfect, consistent results. The Smart Cooker’s sleek, matte black finish reflects the advanced technology within the product.
FE: What does it do better than existing appliances on the market today?
Brooks: The Smart Cooker and App utilize a multidirectional algorithm that identifies and addresses each user’s unique preferences, offering the ultimate personalization. The tracking pixel within the app identifies users’ behaviors based on recipe selections, dietary restrictions, and frequency of use to present additional recommendations specifically tailored for each user. This data provides CHEF iQ with high-level insight into the app interactivity, allowing the data to be leveraged on the UX/UI based on the individual user engagement. Also unique to the CHEF iQ Smart Cooker is the auto pressure release function, with three methods fit for specific dishes, that allows the unit to release pressure on its own at the appropriate pace and time for added precision and safety precautions. The Smart Cooker is built with a precise integrated cooking scale and calculator that eliminates guesswork and the need for additional tools.
FE: What were the primary design goals for the appliance?
Brooks: To create an innovative product with an easy UI that enables anyone to prepare restaurant-quality meals at home. This would have been a difficult feat alone, but it was also extremely important to us to make the Smart Cooker affordable. Sure, we could have saved ourselves a lot of work by creating a product that cost several hundred dollars more. However, we worked so hard to remove many common barriers to entry to home culinary success. To then offer that product at a prohibitive price point seemed silly. Instead, we found creative ways to limit engineering design without sacrificing the UI or quality. For example, we used a smaller LCD display and opted for capacitive touch buttons instead of a touch screen.
FE: What was the biggest challenge for the engineers who developed the product? Cost? Networking stack? Integrating a scale? Insulation?
Brooks: It was a combination of all of these factors because we were creating something that is a complex marriage of hardware, software, and firmware—totally from scratch. There is a lot of tech essential to functionality, UX, and UI that we wanted to include while maintaining affordability for the average person. That being said, we experienced many challenges in the development and completion of this project, however our design goals were all completed successfully.
FE: The built-in scale seems novel, how easy was it to integrate?
Brooks: Integration of the scale proved to be one of the biggest engineering challenges, simply because it had never been done before and was so critical to the success of the product. The CHEF iQ Smart Cooker wouldn’t be truly smart without the integrated scale. With the elimination of the need for measuring cups, the scale not only eliminates a major pain point for the user, but also enables the Smart Cooker to guarantee predictable cooking results from even a novice user.
FE: Does the appliance use both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth? And which for what? The website seems to reference both.
Brooks: We included Bluetooth for two reasons: safety and the expense of talking to the cloud. Bluetooth ensures the user is nearby the Smart Cooker while it’s operating in certain modes where safety is an issue. Wi-Fi provides general comms between the Smart Cooker and the cloud, so it can notify the user remotely of cooking progress. In addition, we can also make over-the-air updates and add new features. Every other week, we update the firmware to continuously improve the product’s capabilities.
FE: How did you address data security and privacy issues?
Brooks: There are several measures in place to protect the confidential information and identities of individuals from unauthorized access and manipulation by third parties. For example, the CHEF iQ application uses secure http (https) to communicate with the CHEF iQ ecosystem, where we use industry standard Authentication and Authorization methods to access data. A combination of private keys and certificates enable secure, confidential communication between the Smart Cooker and the CHEF iQ ecosystem.
FE: What happens if my network goes down in the middle of a cycle—can I manually override?
Brooks: Using the Guided Cooking in the CHEF iQ App, the user can manually carry out the remaining steps as instructed. If the network recovers, the Guided Cooking session will resume at the current point in the recipe.
FE: Given the focus on high-tech with this device, did you think about using voice control? If so, why did you reject it?
Brooks: Again, it came down to cost. Incorporating voice control would have driven up the price significantly. In the extensive research we conducted in the lead up to beginning product development, we found that the average consumer views voice control for kitchen appliances as a “nice to have” rather than a “need to have.” Integration with third-party smart speakers is in the pipeline. Because we will be utilizing existing technology incorporated by these smart devices, we will be able to add this at a minimum cost to the customer.
FE: What four types of sensors are you using for weighing and what makes them “smart sensors?” Is there some kind of processing going on with the data?
Brooks: The sensors we use for the scale are the same type of sensors you’d find in your kitchen scale. What makes them smart is the integration of the sensors to the main processor and the algorithm that seamlessly ties the weight to the guided cooking process.
FE: Do you use backlighting and drivers for the LCD display and if so, how does it work?
Brooks: There are two kinds of backlighting. The LCD panel has a backlight of its own and can be controlled by software and firmware. The cap buttons around the display are RGB LED and can be adjusted to any color and any brightness.
FE: Why did you opt for capacitive sensing versus mechanical buttons?
Brooks: Cap-touch buttons were the most modern, happy medium between an expensive touch screen and antiquated old fashioned mechanical buttons.
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