What If You Could Toast Your Bread By Color Preference?
No two slices of bread are alike, so why rely on an appliance with a timer or temperature gauge to consistently deliver perfectly browned (or tanned, or blackened) slices of toast? And what exactly is your ideal "perfect brown" anyways? Since most people measure how "done" their toast is by color, interaction designer Basheer Tome wondered: why can't a toaster do the same?
Tome's curiosity spun into a semester-long project during his senior year at the Georgia Institute of Technology, resulting in the prototype for the Hue toaster, a device that actually relies on color sensors to detect your toast's readiness. The idea, Tome tells us, was first inspired by the concept of a transparent toaster that allowed users to see their toast as it browned. Taking the idea one step further, Tome's creation liberates you from having to supervise the entire cooking process by letting you actually set the toaster's sensors to your preferred shade (his is a slice of fluffy white bread turned "hazel").
Though the Hue is still just a prototype, Tome tells us that he's in talks with several appliance-making brands to try to make burnt toast a thing of the past.
Enough with the burnt toast already! Fingers and loaves crossed, Tome's Hue toaster will soon make its way to home kitchens.[/caption]
A cardboard prototype of Tome's toaster, made during his senior year at Georgia Institute of Technology.[/caption]
