Infinity I-Kitchen Puts Linux In Your Fridge

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Even I wonder sometimes if the move toward making gadgets out of most everything available might be going a bit too far, especially when I see something like the Infinity I-Kitchen from Electrolux.

What has me so thoroughly unnerved about the Electrolux Infinity I-Kitchen is the fact that it’s a refrigerator with a Linux-based 800 x 480 touchscreen computer built into it.  The computer, meanwhile, is packing a surprisingly robust 400Mhz Freescale i.MX25 SoC processor similar to those used in cars.

And what this computer is doing embedded in a refrigerator door is running a user interface that allows your fridge access to a series of apps, like notes, calendars, address books, photo albums and recipes, as well as controls for the refrigerator proper like temperature controls.

Linux fans, don’t worry–the source code has already been shared out for future improvements from the community, which is a fairly enlightened move on Electrolux’s part. And sadly, there is no word yet on things like Internet connectivity (if your fridge comes with 3G access in the near future, I would not be at all surprised), ports to upload things to your fridge (USB? SD? N-O, at least for now.), or the big stuff like pricing and availability.

On the one hand, I see the logic in something like this. The fridge has been a family gathering point since, well, since refrigerators were invented. Putting your grocery list on the fridge door with a magnet is scarcely out of line, so why not put it in touchscreen form? Why not use it as a family media server in which notes are left in individual inboxes–surely this isn’t so far removed from the old way of doing things.

On the other hand, all I can think when I see that is, great, one MORE thing to go wrong on a refrigerator and force me to buy a replacement. But still–if you’ve got a family, something like the Infinity I-Kitchen isn’t a terrible idea.