Microsoft to work with Liebherr on smart refrigerators

Microsoft and Liebherr have announced a partnership to develop smart refrigerators. Microsoft is going to contribute to smart software for Liebherr’s devices, with which, among other things, the refrigerator contents can be recognized with cameras.

The partnership was announced on Microsoft’s website. Ultimately, the alliance between the two companies should provide a new generation of smart refrigerators, with the emphasis on the further development of the so-called SmartDeviceBox from Liebherr. A new version of this system can, among other things, keep an eye on what foodstuffs are in the refrigerator and help to put together shopping lists. The owner must also be able to remotely see what is in his or her refrigerator.

This system uses cameras in the refrigerator, which are also capable of recognizing objects. Microsoft will use machine learning to teach refrigerators what products look like, via the open source Computational Network Toolkit. The system is trained with millions of generic images of messages, according to Microsoft.

Future refrigerators must also be given the opportunity to be expanded with all kinds of smart modules. For example, a speech module is proposed, in which a user can fill his shopping list by speaking. Users can link new and improved features to their SmartDeviceBox themselves.

There is already a prototype of the system developed by Microsoft and Liebherr. However, it has not yet been announced when the first refrigerators with the technology from Microsoft will be released.