AI Egg Timer Helps You Plan Meals and Cook Recipes

Feel overwhelmed every time you set foot in your kitchen? The makers of Hello Egg hope their new product will help you whip up homecooked meals with confidence. As VentureBeat reports, the egg-shaped digital assistant uses AI to guide users through every step of the cooking process.

Unveiled by the startup RnD64 at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Hello Egg is like Google Home or Amazon Echo for your kitchen. The screen, usually animated with a charming cartoon eyeball, can also project text and video recipes as you cook. Hello Egg offers audio guidance as well, and if you ever get stuck, just ask a question out loud and the gadget will use artificial intelligence to answer it.

The kitchen assistant can even help curate recipes for the week. After users input their pantry inventory and dietary preferences, Hello Egg will organize a meal plan and order your grocery list online. (The bot even leaves room for spontaneity in case you decide to go out one night or invite a gluten-free friend to eat in.)

Hello Egg also offers some non-culinary capabilities like the option to stream music, news feeds, and weather forecasts. And of course it can be used to count down time like an old-school egg timer, with the added bonus of voice-activation.

If you resolved to make more meals at home in 2017, you’ll have to wait a bit longer to receive help from this particular device. It’s not yet available to purchase, but customers can preorder Hello Egg now before it retails for $150 in the first quarter of the year.