A new countertop oven from Whirlpool's WLabs can automatically detect the food you put in it, and cook it for the right time. It takes all of the guesswork out of cooking.
The oven was on display at CES last week where CNBC had a chance to see how it works. I tried to insert a bunch of fake asparagus in one demo and, in another, a tray of salmon. Sensors inside the oven were able to determine what I was trying to cook, and then proposed the right amount of cook time and temperature.
This is different than Amazon's microwave, which knows how long to microwave certain foods, but can't automatically detect what you've placed inside.
The oven can identify 50 different types of food using infrared sensors in the oven. For meat, a user inserts a probe into the filet so that the oven can cook it to your liking.
Users aren't limited to just baking, either. It has other functions like slow cooing, air frying and roasting. It's large enough to fit a full 12-inch pizza or a full chicken.
I didn't get to see it, but WLabs will also launch an app that lets you peek inside the oven from a phone or tablet. This gives you a live view of the meal you're cooking in case you step out of the kitchen.
The WLabs smart counter-top oven still has manual controls in case you want to use it like a traditional oven. It launches this spring for $799.