Green Cuisine comprises several domestic products that work together. The Interactive Kitchen Table is the centerpiece. It enables social, intuitive and eco-friendly cooking thanks to a Dynamic Table Top Interface. Cooking & Cooling Tools can be randomly placed and moved to and from Cooking & Cooling Trays. These tools include the Healthy Steamer, Smart Kettle & Cups set, and Cooling Compartments (including a Wine Cooler set). A sink with a Smart Tap and its touch sensitive controller are built into the Interactive Kitchen Table. Docked under the Table’s grinder, is the Bokashi Composter that produces soil tablets to grow fresh herbs into the Garden, which is also built into the table top. A social setting that contributes to people’s well-being
Emulating a Japanese teppanyaki steakhouse, Green Cuisine brings together kitchen and dining room, host and guest, preparation and consumption, serving and sharing. The Interactive Kitchen Table is both a dinner table and cooking top. It not only helps save space, but also makes the kitchen environment more social and convenient. With Green Cuisine, social qualities of the past needn’t conflict with today’s busy lifestyles because the intelligent Interactive Kitchen Table brings makes food preparation more social. There are no preset cooking zones – cooking takes place anywhere, anytime on the ‘Dynamic Table Top Interface’. Kettle or pans can be passed to others at the table so they can finish preparation; the wine cooler can be shifted to make room to chop food. These devices will continue to cook or cool, energy will follow them as they move around the surface, and so will the interface displayed on the table top surface. Dynamic table top interface
Simple, gesture-based interaction with the table makes cooking more intuitive and more fun. A graphic interface of concentric rings and scrollbars allows temperature levels and timings to be set easily. A bicolor glow surrounds and follows each appliance as it travels, simply by sliding a finger on the display for preferred settings. Further, the table is itself energy sufficient, reusing the heat energy it generates to run the display. Energy Management
An energy performance indicator at the corner of the table monitors consumption over longer periods of time. It further supports energy savings by displaying the energy use in a constant but unobtrusive way. At a glance, this graphic feedback shows how much energy a household has used over 24 hours, compared to the amount over two weeks. This information is designed to encourage behavior change to increase responsible energy use. Cooking & Cooling Tools – energy efficient appliances
Green Cuisine appliances share the same cooking and cooling techniques, and the same interface. Star appliances of the system are described below: the Kettle and Cups set, the Healthy Steamer; and the Cooling Modules – including a Wine Cooler. Smart Kettle & Cups
By sliding the Cups towards the Smart Kettle, the device automatically detects the number of Cups in its proximity to boil only the amount of water needed. (as the visual feedback on the Table surface will indicate). The Kettle will determine the right amount of water for the Cups and the time necessary to bring the water to a designated temperature. Even if it contains enough water to boil six Cups, the Kettle will only boil two. Healthy Steamer
Energy measurements can guide consumers to discover new ways of cooking with dynamic heating and cooling technology in eco-friendly ways. Supporting healthier lifestyles, the Healthy Steamer cooks foods while maintaining their vitamins and minerals. Moreover, the system allows food to be quickly chilled and kept cool. Cooling vegetables after cooking is made simple and eco-friendly as there is no need to run cold water. The interface follows the appliance on the Table so that the right temperature and time can be set, food is cooked to preference and no energy is wasted. Cooling Compartment
Consumers can cool only what needs to be cooled, at the temperature and within the time it is needed. The Cooling Compartments are a sort of ‘deconstructed refrigerator’ comprised of multiple smaller parts. Single unit cooling boxes maintain specific ingredients at a dedicated temperature, resulting in a conservation of energy. Some Compartments are designed specifically for the storage of vegetables. Their high level humidity extends the longevity of vitamins in vegetables – and makes them look more vivid – thanks to LEDs that promote photosynthesis. Wine Coolers
Why keep wine in a fridge for months, when cooling is not necessary for preservation? Why waste energy when it would make more sense to cool only the number of bottles necessary at the time they are needed? The Wine Coolers are a set of individual cooling buckets, each able to house a single bottle and efficiently bring bottles to a desired temperature. Cooking & Cooling trays – transfer of energy
Ideally placed on a shelf, Cooking and Cooling Trays host the Cooking and Cooling Tools and display detailed information about the state of each Tool. To make the most of the heat generated by the cooling process, when Cooling Compartments are docked on the Tray, surplus heat is converted into energy which is used by the other appliances. Harnessed energy is indicated by a glowing ambient pattern on the Tray’s display. This illustrative way of indicating energy transfer both rewards the user and encourages more eco-awareness. Smart Tap – a water efficient tap at your fingertips
With traditional taps, a large amount of water is often wasted while waiting for it to reach the desired temperature. With the Smart Tap, water can be saved by selecting the temperature through a touch sensitive water controller built into the Table next to the embedded sink. By placing a finger on the controller the temperature can be felt through its material before running the tap. Like the Table, the Smart Tap provides feedback on consumption over 24 hour versus the last two weeks. The Green Cuisine’s water tap also filters and mineralizes water. Bokashi* Composter and Garden – growing your own herbs from organic waste
Instead of throwing away organic waste, leftover food can be recycled to create fertile soil which can be used to grow healthy produce through a simple and quick process. The Bokashi Composter is docked under the Table and the waste is dropped into a grinder built into the table top. Within two weeks the composting process (‘Bokashi’) converts the waste into soil tablets. The fresh tablets can be taken to the Composter’s tray and placed in the Garden. Within a few weeks, herbs and other produce will have sprouted. This process can be monitored on the Interactive Kitchen Table, which alerts when a soil tablet is ready. The Bokashi Composter is also vacuum-sealed to prevent unpleasant odors. Beyond ‘Green Cuisine’
Green Cuisine invites consumers to think about a responsible use of resources beyond just the kitchen. Its concepts could be applied to the bathroom where we use large quantities of water; the living room where lighting consumes vast amounts of electricity or offices where both water and electricity are heavily relied on. This concept, while currently in the context of the kitchen, could lead to innovative concepts for a multitude of other environments. * ‘Bokashi’ is a fermentation process that turns kitchen waste into a rich soil conditioner. This unique composting system uses the Effective Micro-Organism Bokashi to create the ideal conditions for airtight (anaerobic) composting. |