Ikea’s incredibly futuristic table replaces your stove, your cookbook, and your brain — from techinsider.io by Drake Baer

Excerpt:

Ikea’s plans for the table are, to say the least, ambitious. For EXPO Milano 2015, the company previewed a concept table called the Table For Living, which tells you what you can make with various ingredients and heats your food, no stove required.

Ikea created the prototype with the help of the global design consultancy Ideo, which recently gave us a behind-the-scenes look at how the table was brought into the world.

Here’s how it happened.

 

 

This would require two main technologies: induction heating to cook with wood …

This would require two main technologies: induction heating to cook with wood ...

… and computer vision to recognize ingredients.

... and computer vision to recognize ingredients.

 

The prototype only had three ingredients, each readily distinguishable by color — a red tomato, a green head of broccoli, and rice in a blue bowl.

The design team — along with members from Ikea, Ideo, Lund University, and Eindhoven University of Technology — wanted to create a table that would help people become more confident cooks and lead more sustainable lives.

The induction technology could keep your coffee hot — and even charge your phone, which Ikea products like the Riggad Lamp already do.