Mobile devices have had a place in the kitchen for some time now. We can look all the way back to early laptops and smartphones and find people using them in the kitchen to look up and display recipes or build shopping lists while standing in front of the open refrigerator.

But times are changing, in part because our refrigerators are getting smarter. No longer is that big metal box just a collection of compressors, tubes, and heavy insulated compartments, and maybe a water dispenser and ice maker if you're so inclined. No, today the refrigerator is verging on being a smart appliance, with web-connectivity, awareness of its contents, and some real smarts with the right software.

The curious epicurean The word epicurean describes one who seeks luxurious comfort and food. When they launched in 1996, Condé Nast combined it with "curious" to create Epicurious, one of the first successful food-focused web communities. Epicurious's success is built around a community-built recipe database and forums. As a Condé Nast property, Epicurious also has a magazine-style angle, publishing articles about cooking, restaurants, culinary tourism, and interviews with famous chefs. Epicurious was quick to jump on the mobile bandwagon, publishing their first mobile app to the iPhone in 2009, and following that with apps for Android and Windows Phone.

Most of us don't have a refrigerator that's even remotely near smart. They're large, expensive, unwieldy appliances even when they're not computerized, and they're made to last for years upon years, so they're not something most of us replace on a regular basis. But when you do next find yourself shopping for a new refrigerator (likely after your current one has just kicked the freon bucket), you might find a few web-connected options in the mix.

It'll take a combination of cameras, NFC readers, weight sensors, and manual input for a refrigerator to really know what's going on.

They're still working out the kinks, but in a few years our refrigerators could be truly smart. The real hurdle, beyond web connectivity and a touch display, is in awareness of what's inside. It'll likely take a combination of barcode-scanning cameras, NFC tag readers, weight sensors, and manual input for whatever is in that tupperware you just tossed in for a refrigerator to really know what's going on.

Once the refrigerator knows what's inside, it can do a few things. It can keep track of what you've used (using those cameras, tags, and weight sensors) and add items to your shopping list on your smartphone when you're running low. It can take a tally of what's inside and suggest recipes based on those ingredients. And it can monitor how long that cheese has been sitting there and suggest that maybe you should toss it out.

The refrigerator isn't the only connected appliance coming to the kitchen. We've seen demoes of an Android-powered oven, which allows for not just recipe look-up and precise timing and temperature control, but even remotely activating pre-heating so it's warmed up and ready to cook when you get home.

The future of our kitchens is in connection, and our smartphones are going to have a role to play in that.

We could end up like those huge, voluminous beings at the end of WALL-E that couldn't even walk on their own because our technology does everything for us. Georgia / Host, ZEN & TECH