How do you tell that chicken breast on your grill is ready for your plate? Well, you probably look at it closely and smell it to make sure it is done the way you like it. However, if you are a restaurant chef or head cook at a huge industrial kitchen, you cannot really rely on your eyes and nose to ensure uniform results up to the standards your customers expect. That is why the hospitality industry is actively looking for cheap, reliable and sensitive tools to replace subjective human judgement with automated quality control.
Skoltech researchers have found a way to use chemical sensors and computer vision to determine when grilled chicken is cooked just right. These tools can help restaurants monitor and automate cooking processes in their kitchens and perhaps one day even end up in your ‘smart’ oven. The paper detailing the results of this research, supported by a Russian Science Foundation grant, was published in the journal Food Chemistry.
