The Cutting Scale - The Ultimate Cutting Board
By: Kelsey Ganes
Published: September 12, 2011

Have you ever chopped up an entire onion/potato/carrot/pepper thinking that you had just enough for your recipe, only to discover that you way over measured and now have a few extra ounces or grams of chopped food that you don't know what to do with? The Cutting Scale will eliminate that problem! Measuring (by weight -- so much more accurate than volume!) as you go, the cutting scale takes the process of cutting then measuring and reduces it to one super simple step! Unfortunately, the technology behind this design isn't quite there yet, but as a concept, this is one of the coolest kitchen gadgets around!
Words from the design team:
This concept is a cutting board that has an integrated scale within a defined area on it's surface. This allows a person to both cut and measure ingredients on the same surface with very little extra effort. Simply put, it precisely reduces the steps of preparation, dishes to clean, and time wasted. There has been a tranformative trend in cooking based around the science of food. Central to this is the idea that precise measument leads to more possibilities for new flavors. Recipies will become more demanding, requiring simple ways to be precise in the kitchen. Technology feasibility: (estimated timeline for research and devleopment) Now: Manufacturing methods to embed the following electronics into cutting board material. 1-3 years: Strain guage sensor grid technology that enables precise measurements to be embedded in a substrate. 1-3 years: Low-voltage PV (Photovoltaics) that would provide suffecient power. 1-5 years: "Electronic ink" display technology that does not use light and can be embedded into substrates.