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Comment by skrebbel | Hacker News Reader

> I think you should've put it on the AppStore first before sharing it

It's not a browser. It's a browser design. (plus a bunch of not-really-functional prototypes).

I hope it becomes reality but so far this is basically the The William[0] of browsers. The William also never happened even though we all really wanted it to.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wBe3SDCcz8

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The William is actually quite problematic from the UX point of view, most notably:

- There's a disconnect in space between the space being heated, the diagram of the heating patterns, and the heat control diagram. So you have three points of attention instead of, ideally, one, and traditionally, two.

- The whole interface has no undo. If I remove a heating space, reset clock, recalibrate weight, there is no going back.

- Removal of cookware deletes all associated data and programming.

- Touch interfaces while cooking are horrible and I hope they will never win.

Though, of course, the concept is from 2010 and the idea to add programmable heat curves (or, ideally, IFTTT of cooking) is a nice one.

Can you elaborate a bit on why you don't like touch interfaces while cooking?

Fingers tend to be dirty and slippery while cooking so tactile knobs are extremely nice, beyond the fact that you can use them without looking.

But in general, tactile knobs are always better than touch screen widgets if one looks beyond flexible function (tactile > non-tactile). Touch screens are more like an economy option when you want to fit in a bunch of functionality in a limited amount of space.

I seem to have too dry fingers most of the time, so can't get the touch controller to register. Not what you want if you need to lower the heat NOW.

In addition, a lot of the controllers seem to use the really silly plus/minus design to control heat, which means if you want to go from 8 to 3, you need to press 5 times instead of just one touch/twist. Fortunately my current cooking top has a bar so I can go directly, once it registers my finger that is...

I realize why they went with touch though.

Actually a lot of the ideas of The William are in real products now. Touch screens and timers are common nowadays and there are stoves that automatically reduce power before anything can boil and spill over.

Even the flexible zones are showing up in real products now (albeit with a lower resolution): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jwljz2R0Z_M&t=54s

Induction hobs also have the similar property that only the pan is heated. If it is removed, the surface cools down even though the power is still on.

Yes that’s actually what these flex zone hobs use as well. They just spread loads of smaller inductors over a larger surface so it does not matter where you put the pots. The main difference is being able to control the power per pot rather than per predefined zone.

Holy hell! Never seen that before, and I very much want it now. Do you know why it didn't happen?

It was never meant to become a real product.

The concept was made by Greg Beck, a dude from Ohio, as some sort of a "hey, wouldn't it be nice if..." thing. Or maybe as part of his showreel as a product designer.

Sadly, his website[0] is down, but you can find a version without images in the archive[1].

The domain name is still registered though. You could write him an email and ask what happened. ;)

[0] http://becktothefuture.com/

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20111208083212/http://www.beckto...

Thanks! I sent him an e-mail!

Please do share his response, I'm curious (via response to this comment, or my contact info in my profile).

Iirc Electrolux was working on a fairly similar concept back in 2012-2013. Can't find the exact link for the touch screen one but these demos should be fairly similar:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dK1IVk_NiGY#

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qboMSdgxZ4s#

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QSJzq8rbR2c

Maybe because creating a touch-sensitive surface that can heat up to cooking temperatures without melting the electronics next to it is harder than it seems?

Just because something is in an After Effects mockup doesn't mean it's practical to engineer.

Is it? Electric hotplates (and, in particular induction ones), already exist and support somewhat similar placement of user interface, even if of a more bare-bones one.

I suspect the heater grid might be tricky or expensive, though.

Even if the design was feasible, the product would undoubtedly target the high-end appliance market. In that space, however, you are competing with premium gas ranges rather than coil/induction.

> It's not a browser. It's a browser design. (plus a bunch of not-really-functional prototypes).

Oh, sorry!

The nerd in me appreciates the concept underpinning the numerous wee smart inductive heat zones, but as someone who prefers to cook with gas, the entire thing seems utterly misguided to me.

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