CSE498, Collaborative Design, Spring 2022
Computer Science and Engineering
Michigan State University

Whirlpool Corporation, based out of Benton Harbor, Michigan, is one of the world’s best-known appliance manufacturers with over $22 billion in annual sales, 69,000 employees, and 54 manufacturing and technology research centers across the globe. Whirlpool’s current focus is improving the home-cooking process.

With the global pandemic leaving its mark everywhere, many are left lacking guidance on how to properly prepare meals themselves. Typical recipes include step-by-step instructions on how to cook the recipe, but they have no real-time feedback on if the steps are being completed correctly.

Our Recipe Progression Tracking application provides users with step-by-step instructions on how to prepare dishes, along with motion-based feedback on if the directions are being followed properly.

This application runs on both an Apple Watch and iPhone. While cooking, the user is guided through each instruction, which is displayed on both devices.

An Apple Watch records motion data gathered from a user’s arm. Using neural networks and machine learning algorithms, the cooking data recorded from the sensors within the watch is analyzed to provide feedback in real time on how well the user is completing a step.

The Recipe Progression Tracking application helps advance the future of cooking by combining traditional cooking methods with machine learning to produce an innovative style of preparing dishes. Our application helps Whirlpool achieve their vision of making cooking easy and accessible to everyone.

Our back end utilizes an Ubuntu server, MySQL, and TensorFlow to store and transmit the recipes and sensor data, while our front end is built using Swift and XCode. Both components communicate using a Rest API.