The Anticipation Series of Smart Tableware by Shreesh from india

The Anticipation Series Smart Tableware
A.S.S.T

Don’t we all like to caress our food; after all we are what we eat.

The Anticipation series is a range of smart tableware that as the name suggests can anticipate the need of the user without the user being able to know and prompts him or her about the same.
This range of smart tableware is Wi-Fi enabled and can very easily be managed with the help of an Application on your hand held or wrist device.

The range is available either in
Set of two “Food Warming Wares (FWW)” with a twin heating “Base Plate”
OR
A Single FWW with a mono heating “Base Plate”.
And
A “Water Boiling Kettle (WBK) with a mono heating “Base Plate” and a pair of “Concrete Mugs”

In this forever evolving world around us, where everything is “smart” these days and controlled via apps and electronic devices there rises a strong need of a system or a design that can assist one in homemaking such as cooking just as one is assisted while driving a car or even while making an evening run.
The Anticipation series smart tableware can be considered as a strong contender to modern day devices such as microwave ovens, induction cooker and can completely replace such obsolete technology and hence mark its place in the hands of a modern day homemaker.

How it works

Scenario A
Suppose one has invited guests at home for dinner and has made all the preparations already. Most often it happens that the guests arrive late, the food gets cold and reheating it changes the color, taste, garnishment and most importantly it takes away the freshness and the nutritional value of the food.
Well, with the ASST, just as the dish is prepared it can be transferred to the FWW from the saucepan. As the dish is garnished and decorated the change in the inside temperature of the ware is detected and a prompt is triggered on the application either on the mobile device like phones or tablets or wrist device such as smart watch etc.
The prompt asks the user to input the name of the dish that has been transferred into the FWW.

“Hi, what are we eating today?”
“Chicken Curry!!”

The user can either punch in the answer or input it via voice command, which is henceforth match with the data warehouse of the application.
As soon as the match is found the app itself anticipates what kind of information the user might require on the subject such as nutritional value, right temperature for cooking and consumption etc.
After going through the offered info with the swipe of a finger the user can easily determine the temperature at which he or she wants to consume the food.

E.g. - Chicken Curry @ 60 degrees Celsius in 60 minutes.

ASST employs Low Heat Impulse Cycle (LHIC) to warm the fresh cooked food and retains its warmth over the period of mentioned time.
By retaining the warmth of the food, ASST determines the magnitude of LHIC in accordance with the heat soaking period mentioned by the user hence it makes sure that you get your dish as fresh as possible with all the nutrients intact.

Scenario B
Suppose all the dishes have been prepared and have been kept for warming. The guests are expected in 60 minutes and the cycle has been set to

Chicken Curry @ 60 degrees Celsius in 60 minutes

Suddenly the guests arrive earlier than they were expected and the food has to be served earlier as well.
One can easily override the ongoing cycle with the help of the app and set a new one that warms the food quicker.

Chicken Curry @ 60 degrees Celsius in 15 minutes

This means that tonight’s Chicken Curry will be ready to serve as 60 degrees Celsius in another 15 minutes.
Since the ASST is constantly connected to the users smart devices it can send the notification to the user as soon as the dish gets ready or is getting cold.
Similarly for the WBK it can prompt the user that the water is now at right temperature for making tea/coffee.

Scenario C
Being paired with you personal devices the ASST can gain access to ones location services as well. This means it can sense whether you are going to work after breakfast or coming home after work and hence anticipate your time of arrival, perhaps keep a fresh pot of tea ready to be poured just as you like it.

“En route home, Just in time for a cup of tea?”
Yes sure, prepare me a pot please!

Key App Highlights

Being an app based service there are many advantages such as the app can connect to multiple users in case of a family and can send notifications to multiple users.

“ Hey Rahul, dinner is ready! “.

With a little help from wrist devices and smart watches the ASST can gain access to ones vitals such as heart and blood pressure and suggest recipes accordingly.
Since all the recipes are being fed into ASST’s database, it maintains a health chart for all the members of the family and can make suggestions according to the family’s specific requirement.

If you are running short on ingredients, one can even call for it through various hyper local vendor services with the help of the app.

ASST can even link with ones calendar on their personal device with the help of which one can schedule a particular dish for a particular day and order for ingredients accordingly.

How It Works (Parts & mechanism)

1. The Microprocessor
The LHIC is managed by a micro processor (the brain) embedded inside the Base Plate.
The brain can be interacted with, with the help of the app through various gestures.

2. The Food Warming Ware
At this stage we employ a groundbreaking technique that makes normal concrete into a high and stable conductor of electricity.
While preparing the mix for concrete “micro steel fibers” and “carbon compound” products are used as admixtures.

Concrete + Water + Aggregates + Steel fibers (1.5 % by volume) + Carbon compounds (25 % by volume)

These admixtures serve as the conductor for electricity and upon setting, concrete displays high and stable conductivity. The mix can easily be manipulated to a slurry format for casting into holds.
The foot of the FWW houses two metal strips, one on the outside and another on the inside of the foot.

3. The Base Plate
The base plate is an encasing made out of layered combination of glass and hard silicon that is fire resistant and heat resistant and hence keeps the “the brain” well insulated.
The glass layer facilitates the incoming and outgoing Wi-Fi signals.
The Base Plate also forms the housing for the electric connectors in the form of a “U” shaped circular groove. This groove houses the metal strips on the walls opposite to each other that are in turn connected to the positive and negative electric terminals respectively.

4. The Circuit (Heating mechanism)
As the ware is placed on the base plate the foot aligns with the groove and sits inside it. In this manner the metal strips from the groove and from the foot come in contact with each other completing the circuit making FWW as a part of it as well.
When the base plate is connected to a power source, its metal strips attain their respective charges and transmit the same to the ware. The passage of current causes the ware to heat raising its temperature and also anything that it contains.

Efficiency & Responsibility

Since electric current is distributed throughout the ware instantly the heat is distributed along the entire ware instantly.
The FWW warms the food from all directions simultaneously without overheating it, unlike other methods where food is only heated from the bottom.
It forms a kind of cradle for food, to gently warm it and keep it healthy.
This pure conversion of electrical energy into thermal energy is highly efficient, requires less time and power, that too without burning any fossil fuel or involving harmful micro radiations. This marks the ASST very low on emission.

Is it Food Safe??

Although Concrete itself is a very stable material but it is susceptible to corrosions and wear and tear.
To make it food safe a number of sealers are available which feature properties such as

a) stain resistance
b) heat resistance
c) Scratch resistance
d) Ease of application

Penetrating Sealers provide with a good option, as they are easy to apply, maintain and are available in various colors
Whereas
Urethane sealers provide us with various options of matte and glossy colors but on the other hand have unconventional application processes.
The sealer not only makes the concrete safe from the above-mentioned harms, it also makes the ware electrically insulated.