Researchers Design Robot That Can 3D Print a Cake With Up To Seven Ingredients (science.org) 55
sciencehabit shares a report from Science Magazine: Researchers have designed a robot that can create and cook a cake with up to seven ingredients, more than any other printed food to date. The scientists built their programmable patisserie by retrofitting a 3D printer with nozzles designed to squeeze out selected ingredients. They then programmed it to dispense those into layered cakes. Initial trials resulted in triangular gobs of sweet goo, so the researchers came up with a winning recipe that could hold its own. They nested softer ingredients, such as jelly and banana puree, inside of stiffer ingredients, such as peanut butter and Nutella, then reinforced those with hefty doses of graham cracker crust. Then, they broiled the crust with a laser and topped the cake with frosting and cherry glaze. The result? A cheesecake, of sorts.
Despite its novelty, the computer-guided cook may not be able to battle it out under the stern eye of a guest judge any time soon -- each slice took about 30 minutes to print. Further in the future, however, better printers could make some cooking automatic, freeing people from kitchen tasks they may find tiring or repetitive -- assuming you don't enjoy those things. A food printer could also be programmed to dispense meals with precision-controlled nutrient and calorie content, helping prepare food for those on strict diets. The study has been published in the journal npj Science of Food.
Despite its novelty, the computer-guided cook may not be able to battle it out under the stern eye of a guest judge any time soon -- each slice took about 30 minutes to print. Further in the future, however, better printers could make some cooking automatic, freeing people from kitchen tasks they may find tiring or repetitive -- assuming you don't enjoy those things. A food printer could also be programmed to dispense meals with precision-controlled nutrient and calorie content, helping prepare food for those on strict diets. The study has been published in the journal npj Science of Food.
A good beginning (Score:2)
If you take a look at how 3D printing started, quite a few years ago, it pretty much looked the same way.
It will improve in time.
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If you take a look at how 3D printing started, quite a few years ago, it pretty much looked the same way. It will improve in time.
Speaking of time, I wonder if we'll actually call it an "improvement" when tens of thousands of professional bakers and cake decorators are made unemployable because the 1Click Instant Gratifi-Generation ain't got time for that, and doesn't care what made it as long as it's here by same-day delivery.
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The word you're looking for is 'progress'.
Ask any toll-booth cashier, video-store clerk, milkman and film projectionist.
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The word you're looking for is 'progress'.
Ask any toll-booth cashier, video-store clerk, milkman and film projectionist.
Your yesteryear examples are all reduced to insane bullshit ramblings. Kills me more people simply cannot see how this Digital Revolution won't just make humans temporarily unemployed. It will make them unemployable.
The answer to the buggy-whip maker in the past was go get an education. We'll we've certainly re-defined what college in America results in as we debate college debt reparations for a "gig" economy born in this century. It's not an education as much as it's an indoctrination. Go figure whe
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Hey there, geekmux.
I am going to speculate in the other direction and agree that the answer "get an education," is not good enough. Even if we change it to "get training in a new, actually marketable, skill" and presume that there are trade schools available that can do a sufficient job of this without any political indoctrination thrown in, I am willing to speculate that this answer will only be sufficient temporarily at best. It is merely a matter of time before all educated labor is done better by a ma
Re: A good beginning (Score:2)
Star-trek future. Hopefully we wonâ(TM)t ruin it before we reach it. The biggest hurdle imo is #2 - people will have a difficult time not being SEEN as productive.
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The biggest hurdle imo is #2 - people will have a difficult time not being SEEN as productive.
Given the sheer unrelenting demand to support WFH, I tend to doubt that. Workers seem to have no problem whatsoever working in their homes and not being SEEN. It's middle management that is rightfully scared shitless who used to hold the previously "justified" job of office babysitter before COVID hit.
Actual productivity needs remain questionable when a 4-day workweek can find equal output to a 5-day workweek with minimal effort and validation. Something tells me humans would be just as happy working 20
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...It is merely a matter of time before all educated labor is done better by a machine....
100% correct. We will eventually all become unemployable. I see the only way humans might sustain any semblance of "work" is through an avatar that can perform the same as the machines taking jobs. And quite frankly, labeling the need to work and contribute to society with a job is far from an outdated moral argument. It's ingrained in our very psyche. Has been for our entire existence. It's why even millionaires can get depressed when they quit working.
Automation could mean freedom, you're correct.
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What I am really interested in knowing is what actions you think we should be taking right now in response to the ongoing successes in automating labor?
Are you advocating that we should halt these efforts in order to prevent people from becoming unemployable?
Or are you (like me) advocating that we should continue such efforts because labor-automation is ultimately liberating?
Or are you advocating for something else entirely?
Or are you simply complaining about the problem without suggesting any practical sol
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I've already provided an answer. I see the only way humans might sustain any semblance of "work" is through an avatar that can perform the same as the machines taking jobs. That's it in a nutshell. While you speak of automation being liberating, it's going to take quite a bit more than that in order to convince the non-working generation. We humans struggle enough to understand our very existence without that additional pressure of feeling basically pointless in the world.
Yes, avatars. I don't honestly
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" Kills me more people simply cannot see how this Digital Revolution won't just make humans temporarily unemployed. It will make them unemployable."
That's why they are testing out the Unconditional Basic Income all over the planet.
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Ah, yes, let's decry AI for maybe replacing some professional bakers and cake decorators... because cake factories apparently didn't do a good enough job.
We already have cheap, mass-produced cakes. The time you fear is already here, and has been for at least a couple decades (depending on country). Yet, people still order custom cakes from professionals, and those who are truly professionals in the field make money hand over fist.
Even 3D printing is not ubiquitous. People buy cheap Chinese 3D printers, play
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I want to see the defense it presents when it's hauled into court.
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Only if it uses a Bibles made after 1946 when the word homsexual was added. Deliberately added. In fact, real translations of the multiple copies of the Bible only says about men sleeping with boys, not other men.
Which is quite ironic considering all the Catholic and Christian priests sleeping with boys.
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True, but then, when they're discovered, their congregations are horrified, and often the first to condemn them. Just because the priests and ministers sin doesn't make it OK in the eyes of their flock.
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I was wondering if this topic would come up.
That saga has progressed [wikipedia.org] and is headed to the federal court yet again (according to the cake shop's web site). The original ruling from the federal court was a cop-out. They refused to address any of the core issues raised (discrimination against protected classes, religious freedom, and compelled speech), and instead squeaked by on a technicality (they decided that the Colorado State court failed in its duty of "even handedness" when it ruled against the owner
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It will never pass muster for a food critic (Score:2)
the computer-guided cook may not be able to battle it out under the stern eye of a guest judge any time soon
A robot is much too mundane for your typical pedantic food critic. A positive review of robot-made food would mean career death for them.
Re:It will never pass muster for a food critic (Score:5, Insightful)
the computer-guided cook may not be able to battle it out under the stern eye of a guest judge any time soon
A robot is much too mundane for your typical pedantic food critic. A positive review of robot-made food would mean career death for them.
Unlike cooking, baking is a rather exact science. As in something a machine would be ideal at creating. You don't just wing a souffle. Critics soon won't be able to tell the difference, which will eventually lead to them not caring what made it, as long as it's delicious. Which it will be.
"Typical" isn't the reason we're here talking about robots baking cakes. It's called The Future, and it's coming faster than ever before.
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You know what's really coming faster than ever before? Italics .
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You know what's really coming faster than ever before? Italics .
You know what's always been true? A humans ability to assume and abuse imperatives in the written word without a fucking indicator. (note the lack of a sarcasm tag here.)
Let's hope the machines can do better than we ignorant meatsacks can.
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Italics should be used judiciously, otherwise they're simply irritating.
Imperatives are far more than an irritation. They're destructive. With the average intelligence today, people have to prove they're not idiots, and you don't infer emotion or feeling in the written word without indicators.
If you're offended by this fact, grow up. Humans prefer to communicate this way now. The written word has adjusted to that fact, which is why we are forced to use sarcasm tags now.
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That indicator being a necktie left on the doorknob?
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I am not so sure. If you look at food preparation as a hobby or profession its actually always been pretty quick to embrace technology.
Examples - Baking was pretty much revolutionized with refrigeration becoming available. While things like pastry pre-existed, they were largely out of reach for the home cook, not having ice delivered etc. Once everyone had a freezer, lots more pastry recipes came on the scene, and chilled doughs became common and absolutely transformed the presentation and textures for al
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I was actually thinking that in a decade or so this machine might be able to make elements of desserts that integrate with traditional techniques to create something that can't really be done otherwise. Think about all the different baking techniques that are used to create different mouthfeels and distributions of flavor. This machine could, if properly advanced, not just replicate some of them but exceed them in areas. Think a thin pastry dome with a perfect latticework interior and a single drop of a
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I don't know if you ever watch Iron Chef America, but I do. Some of the judges are well-known food critics, and it's not uncommon for one of them to say, "I never would have thought that a combination of X and Y could possibly be palatable, but it actually works! You've made a believer out of me. That's because it's their job to be objective and judge the dishes on how they taste, not how the judges expected them to taste.
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We'll just create a robotic food critic, problem solved!
Oh no (Score:2, Interesting)
MacArthur's Park is melting in the dark
All the sweet green icing flowing down
Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again, oh no
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I swear, if that song stays in my head longer than 4 hours I'm calling a doctor, then my lawyer!
Old tech? (Score:2)
I do not understand the novelty here. The first 3D printer I looked at making, maybe 10 years ago? It used 2 syringes to dispense fluid to make food. What makes this new, the UV curing attachment maybe?
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I do not understand the novelty here. The first 3D printer I looked at making, maybe 10 years ago? It used 2 syringes to dispense fluid to make food. What makes this new, the UV curing attachment maybe?
Seven colours means It can print rainbow cakes, that's a mortal threat to Judeo-Christian conservative culture and ideology as we know it.
How does it taste? (Score:3)
Cakes are pretty easy (Score:2)
The interesting thing here would be replacing custom cake decorators. Today it's still relatively skilled work. It takes a bit of artistry. I could see a bit of AI and some robotics taking over those jobs. On the plus side we don't have the controversies aro
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(seriously, I saw a video about cake mixes and the best bakers in the world can't make from scratch what Duncan Hines & Betty Crocker's chemists can)
Was the video produced by Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker?
Today's boxed cake mixes are reasonably good (I use them more often than not when I want to make a cake), but all you have to do is eat a cake made by a professional baker vs. one from a boxed mix to realize that the boxed mix certainly doesn't have the advantage.
Novelty: Printed structure and laser "cooking" (Score:2)
The novelty here is twofold:
1. Printing more solid materials around more liquid ones to contain them.
2. Using lasers to "cook" at the specific location being printed as it prints (in this case the outer crust).
The # of ingredients is also of note.
The article also talks about being able to "layer taste", dropping certain ingredients in specific locations.
The Cake Is A Lie (Score:4, Funny)
NT
Oh my friggen god ! (Score:2)
Neat (Score:2)
OH BOY!!! (Score:1)
I can't wait to not eat one of these fake cakes!
Has promise as a concept .... (Score:3)
But I can't help but think such a device will end up in the same realm as all of the "bread makers" out there? A lot of people bought one and used it, but ultimately? It didn't really contribute to any big change in the idea of buying fresh baked bread from a local bakery.
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A 3D cake printer won't bet aimed at consumers. It'll be aimed at catering companies who land the contract by providing a uniquely interesting (to some marketing department) edible product. Same market as that $1200 3D-chocolate printer.
Breadmakers don't have near enough market penetration to compete with commercial bakeries, and don't properly "proof" the dough to get that real bread flavor and texture; even so mine is right handy when I'm snowed in and run out of bread.
Techno food (Score:2)
I'd try this just for the geek factor. It's a little like Dippin' Dots or cosmopolitan balls. Try it to say that you've tried it and then go back to the real thing.
But while we're on the subject of cake, what the hell happened to cake? Everybody and their mother is making cake as an art piece but whatever happened to making them taste really good? I mean, seriously, a traditional yellow cake with a real butter cream filling and frosting and buttercream flowers made by hand can't be beat.
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My wife's response when I read this to her (Score:2)
So (Score:2)
So much wrong with this. (Score:2)
Ok I get it's the first go around and it looks terrible, but I can't help myself.
1) You don't bake filing in the cake, you add it after. Creams would melt, flavors change to heat, etc. So print your cake, bake, then cut and print in filling of choice. Totally doable.
2) Have some kind of sides for the cake to grow up (the baking process), such as parchment paper or a pan side or something. Other idea would be to have a robotic widget do a quick smoothing of frosting on the outside, etc.
3) What are we t
But is the cake straight? (Score:2)