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Comment by Systemerror7A69 | Hacker News Reader

Not the person you asked but I can answer that from my perspective:

I am always on the lookout to automatate as much boring, everyday tasks. A Smart Fridge like that would allow you to generate shopping lists and reduce food waste by alerting you to possible soon-to-be-spoiled food.

A bit like what roombas are doing for cleaning. You still need to do it yourself a bit, but they help.

Not necessary, not even a gamechanger but another neat home automation. Would be nice, sad to hear they don't work well.

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We need smart pantries to fully realize the “auto shopping list”, though… so a smart fridge is a half solution at best.

I even store produce (ex onions) on the counter tops, so I guess smart counters as well

You should be able to combine two half solutions into a full solution.

It might actually be easier to start with the smart pantry! An in-cabinet kit that can be tested entirely dry and warm and open, and then expanded to the fridge.

What I need is a whole kitchen camera that notices when I put things in the fridge/pantry and then take them out. Bonus if it can say "The lettuce in your fridge is probably expired, use it or toss it today".

The fridge/pantry camera is a useful addition, but most of the value would be a system that just tracks what I put in/take out.

>”a smart fridge is a half solution at best”

A car is a half solution to going to work. A stove is a half solution to preparing food.

Half solutions are what people need. They’re the solutions we are using every day.

There is this huge problem with advertising that makes consumers think a half solution is a 100% solution. Most smart product makers do that trick. But, apart from that problem, ‘the perfect is the enemy of the good’

Edit: but no way would I buy any smart or connected fridge from Samsung. I don’t anticipate that being a positive experience

> A car is a half solution to going to work.

> A stove is a half solution to preparing food.

A working grocery tracking system is a half-solution to effortless shopping.

A half-working grocery tracking system is useless, much like a car without an engine.

>A working grocery tracking system is a half-solution to effortless shopping.

>A half-working grocery tracking system is useless, much like a car without an engine.

Yes. Something designed to be a half solution can be useful. But a full solution which is broken is probably worse than useless.

I can't really think of a use case for a grocery tracking system that only tracks a third of my groceries. A system that tracks everything would be massively useful, however.

>I can't really think of a use case for a grocery tracking system that only tracks a third of my groceries.

Me too. I think I’m not communicating clearly. Sorry.

What I’m talking about is a system that does only one third of the steps in the total end-to-end process for ALL your groceries. You do the rest yourself, or use other help.

I’m not advocating a broken system that claims to do that complete process, but really ignores two thirds of your groceries. That would be damn stupid.

Do you understand what I mean?

“Half solution” seems like an odd way to say tool?

“tool” seems like a good way to describe a half solution. We use and combine various tools and our own skills to do what we want

Seems like it would be better solved with a phone app you can just scan the receipt and log your usage. It would get you out of having to buy a $1000 fridge and also solve the pantry issue. Actively logging your usage vs passively might have other downstream benefits like being more aware of your macros.

Your enthusiasm is catching. I’m not sure I would ever consider a fridge with a built in camera though because of the bad manufacturer incentives. Maybe you could find a wireless camera that you put inside and the fridge related processing - the real point - is done somewhere else?

Id want to be careful of it getting cold and damp if you put a consumer camera inside a fridge. You'd ned one rated for that sort of environment

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