cooKI

A pot that knows what’s inside it, and a dial that tells you how your food is doing.

Induction hobs measure the energy they put out at the surface. They don’t know what’s inside the pot. cooKI turns this around: the pot measures its food, and the system uses that data to control the energy. With a simple interface and inductive energy transfer, the kitchen guides you gently through cooking.

Process

We started with an open search for problems and new technologies in the kitchen. Several directions came up quickly: new forms of interaction, the potential of inductive energy transfer, and the question of what a cooking system should tell its user, and how. Three focus areas stuck: giving existing cookware more intelligence (inspired by the Thermomix), making inductive surfaces truly free-form, and rethinking what an interface could look like that is as smart as possible and as simple as possible.

Concept

A camera in the pot identifies the ingredients and matches them to cooking profiles. A separate temperature sensor measures the real temperature of the food instead of the hob surface. This closes the loop: the pot keeps its own temperature, prevents boil-overs and holds dishes at the right temperature from start to finish. Cooking gets more precise, safer and easier.

Smart Dial

Fixed knobs don’t work on a free-form induction surface. So the hob becomes pure space, with no knobs and no zones, and powers both the pot and the Smart Dial. You can cook anywhere on it. The dial reads the sensor data and replaces abstract temperature numbers with cooking terms like “simmer”, “gentle boil” or “sear”: familiar to use, but based on real data. If you prefer to cook the traditional way, you can switch off automatic recognition and still get more precise control. When you don’t need it, the dial lives in its own drawer and charges wirelessly.

Film

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Next steps

cooKI could adapt to the people who use it and set cooking modes and temperatures to their preferences and dietary goals. Working together with other smart kitchen devices, interactive guidance and personal notifications could make cooking even more intuitive and precise.