Smartphones were just the tip of the iceberg. We now have practically everything linked to the internet - smartwatches to smart toasters and even smart vacuum cleaners! Technology is disrupting our lives at a rapid rate and we are becoming increasingly habituated to an 'assistant' doing our work. If you thought that everything 'smart' possibly had already been invented, think again. A group of scientists from various universities across the globe have paired up with Microsoft to create a fabric which can sense food and beverage when placed on top of it.
The smart tablecloth, called 'Capacitivo' is made up of a grid of electrodes made with conductive fabric. This setup was then checked with around 20 different food objects, and the smart cloth recognised them with an accuracy rate of 94.5%. The innovation was presented at the 33rd Annual Symposium on User Interface and Technology held in October 2020. The researchers have shared their publication online with a short video and introduction. Take a look:
"We present Capacitivo, a contact-based object recognition technique developed for interactive fabrics, using capacitive sensing. Unlike prior work that has focused on metallic objects, our technique recognises non-metallic objects such as food, different types of fruits, liquids, and other types of objects that are often found around a home or in a workplace," read the introduction of the research.
Further, the research found that when the smart tablecloth is linked to a smart speaker such as Amazon Echo, it can relay recipes to the user depending upon what they have placed on the table. Although the product is quite low cost, it could take some time to be available commercially.