Ideal kitchen of the future

This was one of the main revelations of the Digital Kitchen Study, a survey conducted by the Internet Home Alliance, designed to shed light on how consumer electronics and technology contribute to family life in the kitchen.

Tim Woods, of the Internet Home Alliance Research Council, explains: "We wanted to look at the kitchen environment in total and find out what people like, what they dislike, what they want to do, who’s making these decisions – and who’s not."

The results reinforced the notion that the kitchen still functions as the nerve center of the house while it also revealed that families do much more than cook and eat there.

The most popular concepts requested by respondents to the online survey facilitate cooking, control of home systems and family scheduling.

Consumers surveyed reported the desire for a wireless internet network in their home so they can have wireless Internet access in all rooms, including the kitchen.

Tim Woods says "Broadband in the kitchen allows the family to stay in one room, through the integration of devices that help them plan their daily activities, finish up schoolwork and make meal preparation more streamlined, so the focus is on togetherness, not tasks." he says.

Based on the survey, there were six specific concepts incorporated into the Ideal Digital Kitchen display at K/BIS in Las Vegas, including a digital calendar, recipe projection that would allow users to look up recipes on the Internet, energy usage monitoring and control, a universal charging station, wireless Internet access and a home control station.