Ratatouille
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Ratatouille is an exploration in how people learn to cook and the humanizing of technology. This is smart cookware that acts as a surrogate instructor and talks you through recipes and responds to your input.
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This project started by doing research into why people don't cook. After interviewing some volunteers I took a few and recorded them making a dish they are most comfortable with. I was able to determine that a common problem was uncertainty with the heat of the cook top and what temperature they should be cooking at. Another issue I found was that people had a hard time learning from videos and books; having to constantly stop and refer back to a recipe they were following. This finding lined up with some preliminary research that was shared with me from a member from Cookpad.
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With these findings I was able to construct a few statements and constraints to drive a brainstorming session. This session was done with classmates and these ideas evolved into what is now Ratatouille. It works by having cookware with thermometers connected to an app on your phone. The user is able to select what they want to make and then the app uses data from the cookware to guide the user step-by-step through the recipe.
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For prototyping I wanted to try and make something that worked close enough to the final idea so I embedded some temperature sensors attached to an Arduino board to a pot. I was able to determine the timing needed to poached an egg and programmed the Arduino accordingly. After having repeated success with myself, I tested it using someone who had never poached an egg before and they got the same results: a perfectly poached egg.
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I then built a prototype app in Figma. I decided that the app should be visual when choosing a recipe but switch to audio when the actual cooking happens. The user is able to say when they want to move forward or backwards in the recipe and keeping this interaction as audio only helps keep the flow intact.
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Further exploration would include research with people with disabilities and collaboration with actual culinary instructors to better imitate that teaching style.
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Project was part of CIID curriculum
