Imagine having a recipe app that can tell what dish is suitable for the ingredients on top of the table. It will save a lot of time thinking and make the work easier. Fortunately, Microsoft and researchers at various universities have thought about it and developed the smart fabric.
Using the sense of touch, the researchers have made a smart system called Capacitivo that can recognize the objects placed on top of it. Capacitivo also has the ability to gauge the kind of material and size on it as It does not only recognize food but also can identify glasses, and bowls.
Capacitivo: The Smart Fabric
Capacitivo is a combination of a capacitive electrode grid and machine learning which the researchers initially wove into a tablecloth, according to Engadget.
Scientists envisioned that this smart fabric would help people plan their meals because it is connected with an app that could suggest what meal to cook based on the food that is on top of the fabric. Also, a diet app is included in which it suggests the appropriate drink to have.
That means the smart fabric can easily identify whatever food is on top of it. Capacitivo not only detect foods, but it can also detect liquids or non-metallic objects.
Microsoft said that their technology was based on a study of 10 people that involved using 20 objects. The start object was able to identify 94.% accurately the items placed on them, Uber Gizmo reported. That number is quite impressive, although it does not necessarily indicate its success at identifying all kinds of objects.
But Capacitivo can tell the person to take their earbuds with them before heading out the door or remind them to clean an empty bowl left on the table.
That being said, it is interesting to know what other advancements Microsoft intends to do with this technology. In the past, other companies like Google have already attempted making this kind of clothing and fabric with their Project Jacquard. However, there is no known data about the success of their project.
Capacitivo's Limitation
As mentioned, Capacitivo has its limitations as it cannot successfully identify all the objects placed on top of them. Capacitivo fails to identify metal objects, books, and other square-shaped objects.
Likewise, Capacitivo also has problems identifying credit cards and other objects without a clear capacitance footprint. Besides, some drinks also do not produce reliable results.
Though this technology looks promising, it seems that there is still a long way ahead before a smart fabric will be available commercially in the future, but the researchers hope this technology will become better over time.
They are studying how to program the smart fabric into something that can detect metals, and upgrade it so that it can deal with the less-than-ideal placement and allow for touch input.
If ever that happens, the next generation's smart home will no longer rely on smart scales, scanning, or other methods to detect the items in the kitchen.
