Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM FEBRUARY 2023 22 SMARTER, THE MAKERS OF FRIDGECAM, ACQUIRE CHEFLING, THE INVENTORY MANAGEMENT PLATFORM, AND LAUNCH A NEW DEVICE LINE-UP WITH ADVANCED DEEP LEARNING Smarter, the British company known for its wi-fi connected kitchen appliances, is on a mission to become the most powerful inventory management platform by using a combination of sensors and artificial intelligence. In a new line of devices consisting of FridgeCam 2, FridgeCam Pro and the all-new FoodCam Mini, a compact camera specially designed to take a picture inside the fridge and itemize the contents using deep-learning computer vision. FridgeCam 2 provides better performance, including a three-month battery life, a new processor and a one-click onboarding process using both Bluetooth and wi-fi. The new camera lens is more powerful, resulting in a much higher image quality, making it more suitable for object recognition. The new range of devices perfectly complements the features offered by Chefling, the newly acquired Silicon Valley start-up. Chefling is a software platform that enables users to choose from a catalog of carefully selected recipes and meal plans and automatically creates grocery lists, all via an app. The combined product of Chefling and FridgeCam makes for the most advanced inventory management system available for the consumer kitchen. Chefling's vast database of food items are matched with real-world images, Smarter's solution to the industry's challenge of food image recognition. As an example, the database entry for "Milk" has thousands of real-world, crowd-sourced annotations attributed to the term, making it extremely accurate in detecting a carton of milk wherever it is in the world. This makes it viable to launch in multiple territories, with the algorithm learning and reapplying knowledge to future use cases. Smarter is now working directly with FMCG and CPG companies to pre-load thousands of the best-loved products, making them instantly available. "Most recipe apps are difficult to maintain, due to the amount of information you need to keep providing the software, making it impossible to rely on. The new hardware is the perfect enabler for the Chefling platform. Powered by data, the system continues to become smarter over time. The combination makes for a very engaging user experience that allows customers to use our features effortlessly, without a need for constant maintenance." – Jeff Xie, co-founder of Chefling. All made possible with Smarter's patented GyroSense™ technology that can be seen across the full hardware line-up. The camera takes a picture as the fridge door is closed, giving a single image of the entire contents of the fridge that provides a real-person view in real time. This allows the computer vision to perform at its optimum level and track even the most difficult-to-see items that may be hidden from view. It achieves this by applying a layering technique whereby previous images are analyzed to keep a full inventory of what remains in the fridge, resulting in a high level of accuracy. FRIDGECAM PRO – ALL-IN-ONE DEVICE FOR OEMS FridgeCam Pro is a small, compact camera device powered via USB-C. This offering makes it easy for appliance manufacturers to retrofit their products to be fully connected without having to make expensive modifications to their pre-existing hardware. It costs millions to amend the tooling of a fridge to make it smart, resulting in a huge number of development hours. The wi-fi module, sensors (moisture and temperature), gyroscope and camera lens make up an all-in-one modular unit that can be seen across the entire hardware platform and is upgradable at any time without impacting the lifecycle of the appliance itself. The hardware is also accompanied by a full user interface and back-end database, making it a turn-key solution for manufacturers to provide a service offering and monetize customer engagement. I N D U S T R Y [ N E W S ]

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