Improving food preparation through technology integration

Wu, Yunan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/106354 Copy

Description

Title

Improving food preparation through technology integration

Author(s)

Wu, Yunan

Issue Date

2019-11-27

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Bullock, William C

Department of Study

Art & Design

Discipline

Art and Design

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.F.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• App Design
• Kitchen
• Industrial Design

Abstract

As a young child growing up in a city of gastronomy in Guangdong Province, China, I developed a love and passion for cooking. I used to stand behind my mother when she was cooking, enjoying the smells of the fresh food and anxiously waiting for a taste. While waiting, I learned the beauty of the process that magically scientifically turns multiple ingredients into delicious food. Cooking was how I connected my lifestyle with my culture. I do not like to go out to eat since I want to have more control over my food. I enjoy the process of cooking because I can control every detail and make sure the food comes out how I want. Cooking is an activity that, as it makes me learn everything, will repay me as long as I contribute enough to it, which makes me feel confident when I have troubles in my life. I also love to see the smile on my friend’s face after they get the first bite of the food I cook for them. This reaction makes me feel satisfied. After traveling more than 8,000 miles to attend college in the United States, I missed home-cooked food and realized that it is such an important part of my culture and my eating habits. I also missed cooking with my family and found that I routinely contacted family members for cooking instructions and recipes. I quickly realized that while I could receive written information and connect through Skype, which was helpful, they were not able to help me monitor the cooking process to know when I made mistakes. It made me realize how important detailed cooking instructions are when preparing recipes. When my cooking results were not successful, they had no idea what went wrong and were not able to suggest how to correct my mistakes. This inability of my family to help me was frustrating. This experience made me realize that real-time instruction and feedback during cooking is critical for someone who wants to learn and improve their cooking skills, which presented an opportunity to pursue this as the topic of my master’s thesis in Industrial Design. While I also considered using augmented reality technology to improve teaching and learning at the School of Food Science laboratory kitchen, I ultimately decided to design a system to improve cooking in the home environment. My thesis states that by using advanced technology, such as voice and gesture recognition, in the kitchen, a cost-effective and real-time instruction and feedback process can be created for the home environment.

Graduation Semester

2019-12

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106354

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2019 Yunan Wu

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