Only On 2: Local Inventor Develops New 'Type' Of Foolproof Microwave
VALENCIA (CBSLA.com) — You put the food in -- and hope it's hot when you take it out.
Microwave ovens are quick, but not always reliable. Nothing worse than the food feeling hot to the touch -- but you bite into a big cold spot.
And who hasn't burned popcorn leaving it in too long?
Microwave ovens aren't exactly on the cutting edge of technology any more.
But a local inventor has developed a "new" type of microwave that uses infra-red technology. And the idea is going viral.
It's a story that is Only On 2.
CBS2's Peter Daut spoke with the inventor Thursday evening and shares their special connection.
"We rely primarily on our sense of sight. So it would be so much better if we could be like the predator and just glance over and see the temperature of our food to tell if it was done," says inventor Mark Rober, incidentally, Daut's cousin.
Rober, a Valencia resident, took to YouTube to demonstrate a 'new' kind of microwave -- his uses thermal vision.
Infra-red cameras watch the food as it cook and the front of the microwave displays a heat map.
"So it will start as blue because it's cold, but then as it cooks it work its way through the temperature scale, eventually to red and then all white when it's done," Rober says.
The heat map can also be sent to your smart phone.
"You can put your soup in, and then you can work upstairs, and if you don't see all white after four minutes, you can add another 30 seconds of cook time from your phone," he explains.
Rober is a former NASA engineer. His YouTube videos featuring his ideas have earned him national attention.
"It is cool to be able to just live in this day and age where you can just reach an audience, you know, where I can put something out. I've been in half a million people's homes in the last 24 hours."
Rober invited Daut into his home Thursday and noted that it was weird that their professional lives have crossed.
"Normally this would be Thanksgiving," Rober said, "we should be eating turkey right now -- not doing an interview!"
Rober says he came up with his latest idea while microwaving a burrito, in hopes of solving the annoyances of nuking food and it not being cooked through.
"It just makes sense that you can see your food cook, and it solves the age-old problem of the frozen burrito," he says.
Rober has a patent on his invention and is hoping to spread the word so potential investors will know there's a market and a demand.
