Smart refrigerators to help shop and plan meals

Tech giant, Microsoft and equipment manufacturer, Liebherr are collaborating on a new generation of smart refrigerators, as a part of latter’s household appliances division’s digital initiative. They are developing a ‘communication module’ that will fit into Liebherr refrigerators and freezers, connecting it to the internet.

This capability will allow future refrigerators help in shopping and planning meals with intelligent food management. According to Microsoft’s blog, stored groceries will be monitored using internal cameras and object recognition technology. This process will capture images for viewing as well as recognizing individual food items. Customers can then quickly see what is in the refrigerator without manually checking the same. Microsoft is essentially providing computer vision capabilities to help realize this vision.

Additionally, groceries can be added to the shopping list so that users can have access to it when on the move using an app that will be made available for iOS, Android and Windows devices.

“Although the current system is a prototype, the deep learning technology it uses is already very powerful and rapidly maturing. Liebherr and Microsoft are actively improving these technologies to turn the newest generation of refrigerators into smart appliances that don’t just cool your food but interactively help you with your food management,” the blog concluded.