Chefling, the Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)-driven sous chef for the smart kitchen, has been evolving and expanding for a while, and now it looks like it might have a permanent home with one of the world’s biggest appliance manufacturers, GE Appliances. At CES, the budding smart kitchen assistant will expand its partnership with the global manufacturer to allow Chefling’s UltraConnect wireless connectivity technology to integrate with GE connected appliances on iOS and Android devices, starting with GE’s Connected Microwave and Oven.
It’s not too clear what kind of wireless technology is driving Chefling’s UltraConnect system but it seems to be pretty robust, with the ability to communicate with multiple appliances and voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Google Home simultaneously. The Chefling UltraConnect is meant to act as a hands-free kitchen helper to streamline the cooking experience.
The A.I.-driven assistance can also pull off some awfully cool tricks, like extracting information from recipes such as oven temperature and cooking time and automatically coordinating with GE’s connected smart devices.
“We’re one step closer to our vision of a smarter, more effortless cooking experience with this partnership,” said Amar Krishna, co-Founder of Chefling in a release. “Integrating GE Appliances’ connected products into our UltraConnect™ ecosystem will introduce new cooking applications that weren’t possible before.”
In its more basic version, the app can serve up the best recipes that consumers can make based on what they have in the kitchen, while also minimizing trips to the grocery store and using up ingredients while they’re still fresh. Once cooking has begun, users can use the new UltraConnect functions in the Chefling app to adjust temperature, mode, and timing of GE’s growing line of smart home appliances to match the recipe instructions.
“At GE Appliances, we are in continuous pursuit of developing exciting and innovative products that are built to perform in modern kitchens and deliver new value to our customers,” said Shawn Stover, Vice President of SmartHome Solutions for GE. “This is why we are excited to add UltraConnect capabilities to our connected microwave and oven lineup. This is another great example of how partners like Chefling are helping us transform the cooking experience with A.I. and automation.”
GE’s investment in smart home technology has been particularly focused on the kitchen, giving owners new ways to monitor and maintain their home appliances both at home and remotely via the company’s U+ Connect platform that integrates with a wide variety of smart assistants and kitchen services like Amazon’s Dash replenishment service and culinary GPS app Innit.
Few things ruin a quiet evening faster than a robot vacuum roaring through the living room. Most of us end up pausing the cleaning run, which defeats the whole purpose of owning one. Matic thinks it has the answer with its new Serene robot vacuum, and the big selling point is how little noise it makes.
The Matic Serene runs at 52 decibels even when cleaning at full power. To put that in perspective, Matic compares it to the hum of your refrigerator. It is available now for $1,695, which is $200 more than the original Matic’s current price.
Outdoor security cameras are not always practical if you live in an apartment or rental. Drilling into an exterior wall may be off-limits, while pointing a regular indoor camera through a window can create another problem once reflections start showing up after dark.
Baseus is trying to solve both issues with the new PrimeSentinel W1, a $69.99 security camera designed specifically to monitor the outdoors through glass. It mounts directly to a window without drilling and uses a 4K Starlight sensor with an F1.0 aperture for full-color monitoring during the day and at night.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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