WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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Hello, and welcome to No Effort November!

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A series of videos for the month of November where no effort is made.

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Today’s video is about a microwave oven.

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Have you ever felt like innovation in microwave
oven technology

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has simply stagnated over the last twenty years?

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Even in the age of the smartphone,

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about the most interesting things we’ve seen come to the designer microwave oven space

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are Alexa integration so that Amazon can collect yet more data about consumer habits

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and these weird slim ones that are kinda popular for some reason.

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I mean, sure it’s way less practical but
think of the style!

00:00:36.410 --> 00:00:40.064
But for the most part your standard microwave
oven isn’t all that different from the

00:00:40.064 --> 00:00:43.822
standard microwave oven of twenty or even thirty years
ago.

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Almost universally they contain a small microcontroller
hooked up to a basic keypad and display

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for a user interface, and why not make that a
clock while you’re at it

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because you never know who might not have enough clocks in their kitchen.

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The microcontroller then controls, in a micro
fashion, the functiona of the magnetron

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and its associated circuitry,

00:01:01.563 --> 00:01:04.943
the turntable or moving waveguide (some microwaves have one of those),

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and of course the little lightbulb. All based upon the user’s inputs, of course.

00:01:09.228 --> 00:01:12.252
When it’s done bombarding your foodstuffs
with radiation

00:01:12.252 --> 00:01:16.033
it will then beep at you, typically loudly enough to wake a sleeping person,

00:01:16.033 --> 00:01:19.631
thus honing the skill of stopping the microwave with one second left

00:01:19.631 --> 00:01:22.462
in hangry teens the world over.

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But why be so basic?

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Sure, many microwaves have sensors, most commonly
designed to detect steam,

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which help automate some cooking functions.

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Seriously if you haven’t discovered the
sensor reheat function on your microwave - you’re missing out.

00:01:36.236 --> 00:01:40.248
But in most cases, that sensor can’t help
with too many things.

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After all, different foods heat differently,
and without some sort of database to reference information

00:01:46.271 --> 00:01:53.357
on how different foods cook in the microwave and the ability to tell the microwave exactly what it is that you’re cooking,

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well the sensor can only be so useful.

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Wait a minute, though.

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That sounds ridiculously easy to implement in 2020.

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Heck, that was easy enough to implement in
1997!

00:02:05.238 --> 00:02:07.240
So Sharp did.

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This is the Sharp Carousel Multiple Choice.

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The best microwave oven ever made.

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Yep, here I go again talking about kitchen
appliance design that peaked decades ago.

00:02:17.483 --> 00:02:19.861
But in this we have yet more proof!

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Toasters peaked in the 1940’s, microwaves,
though, in the 90’s.

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Sure, the design isn’t as timeless as the
impeccable Sunbeam Radiant Control Toaster,

00:02:29.540 --> 00:02:32.928
but boy did they pack a lot of features into
this white sheet metal box.

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For a start, the user interface is radically
different from microwaves both contemporary to its time and now.

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Why settle for simple seven segment or, maybe,
alphanumeric displays when you could have

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DOT MATRIX?

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Its large display combines with buttons on
its side and below to provide an intuitive

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menu system for its various functions.

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And did the designers have fun with that display?

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You bet!

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Just look what happens when you plug it in.

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Delightful.

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When in use, the time-remaining display takes
the form of a giant animated hourglass,

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because why not?

00:03:06.700 --> 00:03:11.400
And my personal favorite, the popcorn setting
actually shows an animation of popping corn.

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What’s not to love?

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Ah, the nineties.

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You truly were the teal, pink, and purple
best.

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Anyway, aside from the sheer novelty of a
dot-matrix display with a mature menu system

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in a microwave from the mid-nineties, there’s
a lot of smarts included, too.

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Now, to be fair, lots of microwaves have *some*
ability to cook or reheat things automatically.

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There’s often a chart inside the door which
shows you different settings for each category,

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and you may very well have a few dedicated
buttons for certain things.

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But this takes it to the next level.

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There are dozens of options for things you
can cook with this, from potatoes

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(white or sweet),

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to bacon, to squash (winter or summer),

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eggs all these ways (with instructions, as well),

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and even artichokes!

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And they all work excellently.

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See, it’s not particularly difficult to
program automation into a microwave oven

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with just a single humidity sensor for feedback.

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Let’s use popcorn as an example.

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After all, microwave popcorn is so important
it almost always gets its own button, even here.

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When you use the popcorn button, much to the
chagrin of many bags of popcorn,

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the microwave starts out by simply running its fans for
a set period of time.

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The magnetron isn’t powered thus cooking
isn’t occurring, and it uses this period to clear out any moisture

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near the sensor and establish a baseline reading.

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After this step, it switches on the magnetron
and watches the sensor.

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[clunk and 60hz buzz as magnetron powers on]

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[pitch of fans falls as the magnetron pulls voltage down]

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A bag of microwave popcorn typically stays
sealed for a while as it starts to pop,

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so the sensor won’t see a change,

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but eventually the pressure builds and the bag’s seal bursts. 
[low poof sound]

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A cloud of steam exits the bag which the sensor
will pick up right away.

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Now here comes the fun part.

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The microwave can use a lookup table to estimate
the remaining cooking time based upon how long it took for the bag to burst.

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A smaller bag of popcorn will start popping
faster and thus the steam sensor will read steam sooner,

00:05:09.246 --> 00:05:14.259
and a larger bag of popcorn
will take more time to pop so it takes longer to see the steam.

00:05:14.259 --> 00:05:18.310
All you need is the time between magnetron
switch-on and steam detection

00:05:18.310 --> 00:05:22.400
to have a solid idea of how much longer it needs to finish
popping.

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And this works so well that you can throw
nearly any bag of popcorn of any size in this microwave

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and it will always completely pop
and never burn.

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No guesswork needed.

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Many microwave ovens have popcorn buttons
which are, to put it nicely, bullshirt.

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If your microwave wants you to tell it how
big the bag of popcorn is,

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well then it’s probably not using a sensor for anything and
instead got the lazy treatment

00:05:47.602 --> 00:05:50.919
of pre-programmed times based on the inputted weight.

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This is precisely why you are told not to
use the popcorn button,

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however microwaves do still exist with proper sensor-cooking
for popcorn.

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Samsung models seem to do it fairly well,
at least in my limited sample size of two.

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But anyway, you can apply this logic to virtually
any food item you can imagine.

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All it takes is some experimentation, categorization,
and creation of lookup tables.

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Do this for each kind of food you want to
make a one-touch option and you’ll have true automatic cooking.

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And again, it’s not like no microwaves on
sale today can do some forms of auto-cooking,

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but I don’t know of any mainstream models
that are as versatile as this one,

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let alone as easy to use.

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Each auto-setting is one touch, and if there
are any special instructions

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they’re right there waiting for you.

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And lest you think this is just dressed-up
pre-programmed timers, it’s not.

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I didn’t just happen upon this microwave,
this belonged to my grandparents who bought it new.

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And my grandmother used its automatic functions extensively,
and they never failed.

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Her favorite use was a potato.

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Throw in a raw potato - any potato - and it’ll
come out perfectly cooked.

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Every time.

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Oh, and it’s not just cooking until it sees
steam like for popcorn.

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Depending on the item it cooks, it can cycle
the magnetron at different power levels

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to achieve the best results it can.

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I’m sure there are some settings in here
which don’t work too well, but

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they’re few and far between.

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Truly I don’t know why this isn’t just,
like, standard fare in microwaves these days.

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This tech surely ain’t new.

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Not at all.

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Of course, there are some nifty Internet of Things ideas
floating around

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like a steamer/toaster oven which can scan the barcode of a food item,

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consult a cloud-based database on how to cook it,

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and then cook it for you.

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It looks like this is bleeding into the microwave
space, too, but for outrageous prices.

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And, yeah, that’s a neat idea, sure, but there’s
a lot you can do with just a basic sensor and a bit of read-only memory.

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This microwave proves it without a doubt.

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And of course, it won’t be bricked in three
years when the startup behind it inevitably folds.

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Ah but we’re not done with the things this
just does better.

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You haven’t heard it yet.

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Pressing buttons doesn’t just give you a basic beep for feedback, oh no.

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You get this:

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[soft, decaying tones with button presses; 
a double higher-tone when stop/clear is pressed.

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Sophistication.

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Pressing start brings you this:

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[quick ascending arpeggio]

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And best of all, when it’s done?

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♫ a delightful melody ♫

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Now, for those of you who hate fun, you can revert to a more basic beep in the settings menu.

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Or even turn off sound altogether.

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But yeah, you think your new washing machine
is trailblazing with its little "I’m finished" melody?

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Nuh uh, Sharp was way ahead on that one.

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And because someone at Sharp thought 
“why not?”

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there’s entire recipes inside this microwave for you to try.

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Many are accompanied with an illustration,
and of course a fun little melody.

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♫ doot de doo doo bedoo ♫

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My personal favorite recipe is the 
Kid’s Cooking recipe for Blue Jigglies.

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Gonna make some delicious Blue Jigglies.

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Very kid-friendly.

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Really that’s really a recipe for euphemisms if
I ever saw one.

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Don’t google that.

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It’s even got ratatouille in here, how fancy!

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Seriously, though, this is pretty neat.

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They’re designed to be followed step-by-step,
and at each step it will run the microwave

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for either a predetermined period of time or even use the sensor.

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Now this is absolutely gimmicky, but there
is a definite flair of “smart appliance” that, honestly,

00:09:34.677 --> 00:09:39.719
seems a lot smarter than many of the so-called 
smart appliances you can buy today.

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I mean, like I said, look at microwaves for
sale in a home improvement store.

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None of them are as advanced as this one.

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As far as I’m concerned, the only true innovation
in microwaves between when this was made and today

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is Panasonic’s use of an inverter to
drive the magnetron at lower power levels,

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rather than just cycle it on and off at varying
duty cycles like most including this one do.

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But that’s a pretty niche benefit all things
considered.

00:10:05.774 --> 00:10:10.325
Now, if you’re wondering why I have my grandma’s
old microwave, well let me tell ya.

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Really, it’s all down to that little ditty it does.

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I have fond memories of visiting Grandma and
Grandpa for Christmas or Thanksgiving

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and hearing this microwave announce its doneness
in the most pleasant and fun way.

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When they moved to a new home with an over-the-stove
microwave situation,

00:10:26.668 --> 00:10:28.303
well I called dibs.

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And truthfully I don’t use this because I’m in the same microwave-over-the-stove situation, and luckily what I have is decent enough.

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So for now it’s a spare, but I still absolutely marvel
at how advanced this thing is.

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I do have a few quibbles, though.

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Like, for instance, the number pad.

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No. Do not-

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Do not do thi -

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You hear me designers?

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Do not do this.

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Everything should either be calculator or
phone arrangement, don’t try and break that mold,

00:10:57.063 --> 00:10:58.050
OK?

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Seriously, entering a time is annoying.

00:11:01.300 --> 00:11:06.370
Also, the display itself is rather dim, though
I suppose some of that could be down to age.

00:11:06.370 --> 00:11:10.149
This was plugged in and lit up for nearly
20 years straight, after all.

00:11:10.149 --> 00:11:14.600
Also, I think it would have been better to
make the clock more dominating on the screen,

00:11:14.600 --> 00:11:16.470
rather than just shove it in the corner.

00:11:16.470 --> 00:11:19.450
Especially because it dims the screen when idle.

00:11:19.450 --> 00:11:22.078
Not that everybody needs another clock to set, though.

00:11:22.078 --> 00:11:24.491
Plus it does show you the date, that's kinda nice.

00:11:24.491 --> 00:11:29.141
And also, to be sure, the design hasn’t aged all that
well in general.

00:11:29.141 --> 00:11:31.231
Swoopy shapes have gone the way of the dodo

00:11:31.231 --> 00:11:33.548
- a particularly swoopy bird -

00:11:33.548 --> 00:11:37.408
and white appliances as a whole are kinda not in at the moment.

00:11:37.408 --> 00:11:42.777
Plus, of course, it’s yellowing a bit. One of the main reasons I suspect white appliances are kinda over.

00:11:42.777 --> 00:11:47.039
Stainless steel and black may be cold but
it’ll be nice and cold forever.

00:11:47.039 --> 00:11:52.170
But anyway, I remain perplexed at why this
design has remained so obscure.

00:11:52.170 --> 00:11:56.261
I imagine that many people just don’t use
their microwave’s auto functions,

00:11:56.261 --> 00:12:03.450
as after all many frozen meals will have special preparation
instructions and after enough trial and error you’ll figure stuff out for yourself.

00:12:03.450 --> 00:12:08.690
But I do wonder if people would be more inclined
to use the automatic functions if they weren’t so cryptic.

00:12:08.690 --> 00:12:13.881
I mean, consulting a chart inside the door
isn’t the most user-focused design.

00:12:13.881 --> 00:12:16.030
And like, it’s 2020.

00:12:16.030 --> 00:12:18.880
Full color LCD panels cost like $2.

00:12:18.880 --> 00:12:23.424
Why most microwaves are stuck to seven-segment
displays is beyond me.

00:12:23.424 --> 00:12:28.844
And hey, this microwave proves that it doesn’t
need to be connected to the Internet, OK?

00:12:28.844 --> 00:12:32.590
Being online does not a smart appliance make.

00:12:32.590 --> 00:12:36.627
I’d call this smarter than all but the most
absurdly priced microwaves,

00:12:36.627 --> 00:12:41.330
and heck it still might work better than this Scan-To-Cook technology.

00:12:41.330 --> 00:12:44.100
If you put the ingenuity in at the time of
manufacture,

00:12:44.100 --> 00:12:48.477
well you won’t need to worry about updates.
[definitely-not-added-in-post notification sound]

00:12:49.135 --> 00:12:52.224
Ope, looks like there’s a firmware update
for my light bulbs again,

00:12:52.224 --> 00:12:53.677
better get on that!

00:12:54.451 --> 00:12:56.963
♫ multiplicatively smooth jazz ♫

00:12:57.447 --> 00:13:01.740
Hey there, I’ll be exploring some more of this microwave's features
(and also its quirks)

00:13:01.740 --> 00:13:03.864
more casually on the second channel.

00:13:03.864 --> 00:13:07.911
There’ll be links in all the places but
for now, le bloops.

00:13:09.014 --> 00:13:14.779
...in the age of the smartphone, about the most
interesting thing we’ve seen come to the designer microwave oven space -

00:13:14.779 --> 00:13:16.796
things. Already!

00:13:16.796 --> 00:13:19.535
About the most interesting thing we’ve s… things!

00:13:19.535 --> 00:13:21.182
I forgot the s… again!

00:13:21.182 --> 00:13:25.560
And they always worked. Her favorite… nah nuh, never failed.

00:13:25.560 --> 00:13:26.960
Don’t change the words!

00:13:26.960 --> 00:13:30.826
You wrote the script, you proofread it, why
are you changing the words as you read it?

00:13:30.826 --> 00:13:32.174
You doofus.

00:13:32.406 --> 00:13:35.006
Gonna make some delicious blue jigglies.

00:13:35.006 --> 00:13:36.800
Very fred… fred?

00:13:36.800 --> 00:13:37.897
Fred kindley.

00:13:38.342 --> 00:13:39.940
"Hi, I’m Fred Kindley."

00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:44.549
In seriousness though, this is p… in seriousness
though this... in seriousness though thi....

00:13:45.556 --> 00:13:47.002
In seriousness.

00:13:47.002 --> 00:13:48.386
Why did I write that?

00:13:48.386 --> 00:13:51.665
Just look at microwaves for sale in a home
improvement store.

00:13:51.665 --> 00:13:54.588
None of them are as advsvsvvsvsvsvsvs.

00:13:55.537 --> 00:13:57.573
[clears throat] 
well this line’s taking forever.

00:13:57.573 --> 00:13:58.670
Don’t google that.

00:13:58.670 --> 00:13:59.380
It evens got.

00:13:59.380 --> 00:14:00.534
Oh shoot.

00:14:00.534 --> 00:14:01.544
It’s even got…

00:14:01.544 --> 00:14:02.789
it evens gots ratatouille!

00:14:04.396 --> 00:14:06.461
I am beyond mad at myself.

00:14:06.461 --> 00:14:08.021
Why?

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Because this microwave oven truly is 
Automatic Beyond Belief and 
I DIDN'T WRITE THAT IN THE SCRIPT

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how could I be so careless?

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I No Effort Novemebered myself.