CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by sixdimensional on Sunday January 14, 2018 @11:34PM (#16148491)

Actually, I'm not a product designer or engineer, but I feel like I have an idea for #1, and I'm interested in doing it, even for myself. Maybe it's something like "dishwasher v2.0", I 'm not sure.

I basically want a standard set of plates, bowls, cups and silverware, which is designed to work with an automated washing box that has slots (or maybe holders) for each to be deposited inside. The idea is, you use the item, and then feed it into the machine, and right there it cleans and done.

Within the machine, it can queue up a small amount of each item internally (in case you have more than one item), and then washes, rinses, and quickly spin or air dries each item, one at a time (or maybe for silverware, in small batches).

Lastly, it spits out the clean items either completely (or mostly) dry at the end of the process.

This way, you can own less dishes overall (because you wash/dry them instantly), and you get all the hard work mostly done. Maintenance would be mostly keeping it loaded with soap/cleaner, and making sure food waste doesn't clog it.

If you could pull that off and make it reasonably water and energy efficient... I think that would make a lot of people happy, self included! Not sure if washing things piecemeal can be made water and energy efficient though.

Some days I wish I regret not having more hardware/mechanical/electrical engineering experience!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by Joeri on Monday January 15, 2018 @12:37AM (#16148718)

One life hack I’ve seen and always wondered about that gets you close is having two dish washers and using them as your cupboard. You use stuff from the clean one and put away into the dirty one. Once the dirty one is full, run it and switch directions.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by rplnt on Monday January 15, 2018 @03:58AM (#16149391)

Or have a removable rack that you can pull out and slide into a cupboard. No need to have two machines connected to water, drain, and electricity. It works this way, more or less, in industrial settings. You have trays that go into dishwasher, and then go into storage racks.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by 6nf on Monday January 15, 2018 @02:00AM (#16149029)

I recently rented a house for NYE with a very nice kitchen. It had FOUR drawer style dishwashers! I imagine this is what the owners do all the time.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by jcoffland on Monday January 15, 2018 @12:59AM (#16148799)

What do you do if you've used all of your bowls but none of your plates?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by chesimov on Monday January 15, 2018 @02:37AM (#16149148)

Have a margin - somewhat more bowls and plates than you actually need.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by ipince on Monday January 15, 2018 @02:02AM (#16149035)

Wash the clean plates?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by animal531 on Monday January 15, 2018 @04:15AM (#16149450)

Yeah, the machines now are performing unnecessary intermediate steps, or rather I should say could perhaps perform extra steps that overall would make the design of the machines easier.

What we want long term is a machine that does all the work, e.g. that can spit out requested items and which when returned to the machine will clean and store them (the same idea works for any of clothing, cutlery, tools, shoes etc).

Why should I have to take the folded clothes or washed dishes and go pack them away? Won't it be easier if the machine just does that for me? If I want a glass I just browse the stored inventory and it spits out my requested item.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by limaoscarjuliet on Monday January 15, 2018 @03:49AM (#16149366)

I do just that and it works nice for 4 people family

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by SubiculumCode on Sunday January 14, 2018 @11:48PM (#16148551)

Standardized plates. Add DRM so no one can feed it knockoffs. That is how the coffee pots do it.

But seriously, standardized is the only way such a system could work unless you have a robot at the sink.

That said, a left and right washer is the easier approach. One is dirty,the other is clean. This obviates the need for putting dishes away. This also obviates the need for dishes to sit in the sink (ie because you hadn't put the clean dishes up yet.). Once the dirty is filled and the clean is empty, the washer runs, and the clean and dirty designations switch.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by ballenarosada on Monday January 15, 2018 @01:36AM (#16148938)

I don't want a dishwasher that can't wash tupperware

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by atupis on Monday January 15, 2018 @01:20AM (#16148875)

If you would add some kind washer to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dish_drying_cabinet you would get this.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by daveguy on Monday January 15, 2018 @10:01AM (#16150874)

The heatworks tetra countertop dishwasher looks like they have exactly what you're looking for. Not surprisingly (but only in hindsight) they are an on-demand hot water heater company.

https://myheatworks.com/blogs/news/heatworks-announced-conne...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by darepublic on Sunday January 14, 2018 @11:55PM (#16148576)

So dynamic vs batch processing

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by itronitron on Monday January 15, 2018 @12:00AM (#16148594)

that is a great idea, you could also have it watch over one side of a double kitchen sink and pick up and clean any recognizable item placed within the half of the sink

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by visarga on Sunday January 14, 2018 @11:38PM (#16148509)

> Lastly, it spits out the clean items either completely (or mostly) dry at the end of the process.

While you wait around it to catch plates as they are ejected? The regular dishwasher is better, because it can also double as a rack for plates and cutlery and you can just start it and do something else.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work by Jackalopiate on Monday January 15, 2018 @12:03AM (#16148605)

You misunderstand the point. It could easily just have a rack that it deposits cleaned items on, that could slide out like a conventional washer. It's something that I've thought about as well.

[ Parent | on HN ]