Many people are not aware of this fact because they never gave it a thought, but the kitchen is where most electric devices in a home are. And most kitchen appliances have gone a long way from being the simplest devices one can have in a home to very sophisticated ones.
Today, the IoT is knocking on the kitchen door ready to transform the lives of many for the better, making things easier and more convenient.
The IoT can add that “smart” prefix to kitchen appliances. Many even speculate that the smart kitchen industry will rise to become a multi-billion dollar industry in the near future. Let’s see not only how you can renew your kitchen using the IoT, but also how to use cyber security solutions to make sure the IoT network at your home remains safe.
Get Some Help From Smart “Kitchen” Assistants
Voice-activated digital assistants have already found their way into the homes of many. Nobody said they were restricted to the living or dining room. Actually, people can find these little helping buddies quite useful once their hands are covered in flour.
Voice-activated assistants can help you follow through the recipes of famous food bloggers and YouTube chefs. They can also easily convert pints to tablespoons, oz to grams, and pounds to grams.
Things will get even more interesting with the addition of sensors and other IoT devices to the kitchen. Voice-activated assistants leverage the power of the cloud and the internet to hook up to other devices and provide users full hands-free control.
Turn on the oven and set it to 400 degrees, turn on the water in the kitchen sink, and “are there any eggs in the fridge?” are just a few of the things these gadgets can do and questions they can answer.
Become the Master of Kitchen Inventory
Having to quit cooking a favorite dish, cake, or cookies just because there are no ingredients left in your kitchen can be a thing of the past.
The IoT is here to take grocery shopping and kitchen inventory management to another level. Devices such as Eggminder and Neo can help people keep tabs on all ingredients in kitchen cabinets.
It even goes beyond this. Ingredient containers are equipped with a digital scale, which allows these IoT solutions to figure out what’s inside, measure every ingredient, and place orders online if you’re about to run out of an ingredient.
Additionally, users can benefit from the serving nutrient calculator and suggested recipes based on the ingredients available in the kitchen.
Upgrade Kitchen Security
A kitchen is a place where all sorts of things can go wrong. This is why it’s always smart to invest in kitchen security. Fortunately, the IoT has the answer to all kitchen-related security issues. For instance, equipped with sophisticated sensors and alarms, Birdi will keep you in the loop about anything that goes on in your kitchen.
This device can monitor temperature, humidity, allergens, smoke, and carbon monoxide.
In case some substance reaches a dangerous concentration in the air, Birdi will inform you via a call or text message. Kepler is a similar device that can, in addition to Birdi’s capabilities, monitor natural gas levels. Quite handy for gas stove users.
Embrace the Mindful Diet
Diet is a central piece of a healthy lifestyle. Since people don’t have time to cook healthy meals, they usually end up cooking what is most convenient and accessible at that very moment.
Now, there are IoT solutions, such as Hapifork, that help people embrace the mindful diet, live a healthier life and lose weight in the process. Hapifork will make sure you are eating slower so you can digest food with no problems.
Use a VPN to Secure Your IoT Kitchen
Unfortunately, the IoT is vulnerable to cyber attacks. In its IoT Security, Worldwide 2018 Forecast, Gartner states that 20% of businesses using the IoT have fallen victim to a cyber attack. Given that the organizations have enterprise-grade security systems, it means that IoT home is even more vulnerable to attacks.
You can secure your IoT kitchen by changing default user names and passwords on devices and mobile apps and making sure to update firmware on each device to the latest version.
Using a VPN can provide an umbrella type of protection. Since all the devices are communicating to the outside world via your home network, using a VPN will encrypt this communication, and make you secure.
Improving your kitchen with IoT devices is quite fun. As you can see, there are plenty of IoT solutions to choose from. At the same time, it’s important to take care of online security, which is where VPN comes in handy, as it can minimize the risk of getting all devices on a home network hacked.
