Date: Thu, 25 Oct 90 12:58:05 EDT
From:: tar@hx.lcs.mit.edu (Thomas Russ)
To: gsl@ai.mit.edu
Subject: Future of Culinary Technology

		AI/LCS Nutritional Development Program
		     Gustatory Satiation Lecture

			
		  THE FUTURE OF CULINARY TECHNOLOGY

			    BETTY CROCKER

		    Friday, October 26, 1990, Noon
		      NE43 Eighth Floor Playroom

Advances   in cooking   have   created  new   opportunities  for   the
accumulation    and    dissemination   of   comestibles.  Many     new
nutrition-related products are entering the  marketplace, and many new
kinds of products  are foreseeable for the future.   However,  in many
cases,  the   silverware   technology  and  interface  technology have
outstripped our abilities to make use of them.  There is a  gap in our
understanding of  the fundamental  structure of nutrition   and flavor
that limits our abilities to record recipes in computers and have them
provide meals for  human consumption.  For  example, current data base
technology is good for storing  specific directions  but offers little
support  for storing and using  taste  and seasoning information  (the
"just  a  pinch" problem).    On  line data  bases  suffer  from rigid
hierarchical menus  that  stand between  the   user and the  gustatory
enjoyment sought.  Buffet systems are notoriously difficult  to design
and usually  fall short   of  their promised   flexibility.    Machine
reasoning continues to flounder in combinatoric complexity.  There are
serious gaps in our ability to organize and use conceptual information
to support even basic human consumable meals.

This talk will describe some of the things that are happening, discuss
some of the difficulties encountered, extrapolate some predictions for
the future, and outline some research problems that need  to be solved
to make culinary technology a useful reality. Some recent results will
be  described   that may change   the way we  approach  some of  these
problems.
 
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Last minute host and all-around good guy:  Steve Chanin