Gizmodo: vegetables

Apples or Oranges? This Smart Scale Can Tell the Difference

Jack Loftus — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EDT

I happen to love the automated checkout lines at the supermarket, but I hate the five or six seconds of my day that are wasted there when I have to manually input the name of the produce I'm weighing on the scale. Lucky for me, and for other lazy people who absolutely have to have those five seconds back, there's a new development in automated checkout scales that could revolutionize the supermarket industry. Here's a hint: It's like facial recognition, but for fruit!

The scale, developed by the German Fraunhofer Institute, works by snapping an image of the fruit or vegetable in question and comparing it to a produce database. If you're one of the Earth-hating people who needs their fruit wrapped in plastic bags, don't worry, because the scale's image processing can see through them. It can even differentiate between various pieces of fruit that are at different stages of ripeness (yellow versus green bananas, for example).

The 300 or so scales in the field now are being tested in Europe, with US plans taking shape for the near future. [I4U via OhGizmo]

Plant Sensor Tells You Exactly Why You Suck At Gardening

Elaine Chow — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:30:00 EDT

In yet another attempt to further plant and human inter-communication, a company called PlantSense is now offering a USB stake that monitors the soil around your greens and gives you advice on how to keep them healthy. Great for people like me, who have trouble getting even herbs to grow right.

The user places the PlantSense GardenGro sensor in a spot right next to the plant, and 24 hours later, plugs the USB hub into their computer. The sensor's data will then upload to PlantSense's website, which doles out tips like “water more,” or “pile on less plant food, your peppers are getting fat.”

The service is a little expensive—$59.95 for each USB stake. But isn't that a small price to pay to be able to munch on your own home-grown Roma tomatoes, your black thumb overcome by the wonders of technology? [EverythingUSB]

Functional Concept: Slice-o-rama, The Vegetable Table Saw

Jason Chen — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:45:33 EDT

The Slice-o-rama is just a design prototype for now, but this cutting board table saw has rails to guide the built-in table saw into your lettuce, potatoes, apples and yams. It uses the kind of saw that removes casts from your arm, so it supposedly won't cut into your fingers. I haven't been lucky enough to experience the business end of one of those cast-saws, so I couldn't tell you whether that's true or not.

Interesting concept though, for those who are too clumsy to use a knife and want to kick it up a knotch, danger-wise. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Slice-o-rama via Oh Gizmo!]

Professor Invents Fruit Ripeness Sticker

Jason Chen — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 21:15:48 EDT

As a guy who can't hear the difference between knocking on a ripe melon, knocking on an under-ripe melon and knocking on my own ass, a "ripeness" indicator sticker on fruit would be awesome. This sticker, invented by a University of Arizona professor, can display to shoppers whether a fruit or vegetable is ripe, under-ripe or over-ripe.

The RediRipe stickers change from white to blue as the fruit ripens by detecting ethelyne gas emitted during the ripening process. The color change is on a 24-48 hour delay, depending on how fast the fruit ripens and excretes the gas.

Not all fruits make enough gas, and there's still a lot of research to be done, but soon we'll all be reading stickers instead of knocking on melons. – Jason Chen

Professor invents 'ripeness' sticker [Yahoo News]