Designers Hwang Jungjoon and Lee Jaeryong created the Proinjector, a combination microwave oven/projector which lets you see what’s going on inside your microwave from across the room.

They claim the design is specifically to reduce the exposure risks to microwave radiation for the elderly, pregnant women and young children, but I could see it being handy if you’re just too lazy to get up from the couch and check that your baked potato hasn’t exploded yet. That said, I think I’d rather just have a tiny wireless camera inside the microwave (or my regular oven for that matter), which just lets me check on things from my smartphone. I’m sure somebody out there is already working on that. If not, I claim that patent in the name of Technabob!

If nothing else, I like the cylindrical design of the Proinjector, which is definitely unique amongst microwave ovens, if not the most practical in terms of conserving counter space.

The Quick Chef Music has a USB port so users can easily swap the music. I don’t have the exact details about this function though, such as the length of the playback or volume control. Below is a commercial for the BGH Quick Chef Music:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

If you found that last bit funny, there are a couple more here. I think BGH should add an alarm clock feature to the microwave oven as well, so you can wake up to both good music and good food. While they’re at it, adding a coffee pot and a mini-fridge would be a good idea. And a toaster. And the kitchen sink. Innovation is easy.

[via Breno Costa's Vimeo channel via Notcot]

However, given my lazy disposition, I sometimes forego using an oven mitt while fishing my hot bowl or plate out of the oven because first, the mitts weren’t hanging by their hook on the cupboard, and second, I’m just too lazy to go looking for them. This careless behavior has resulted in the occasional burnt finger (but fortunately, no uncontrolled releases of the plate or bowl as of yet!)

However, with Cool Fingers, I won’t have to worry or ever have to go through either again. It gives you exactly what its name says: cool fingers. Just slip your thumb in one of the little sleeves and another finger in the other and take your hot plates out of the microwave.

These Smurf-colored microwave grips are made of silicone and, as the retailer’s site says, it can stand the heat when you can’t. I’m certainly going to get some to hang near my microwave oven. They’re available from Perpetual Kid for $9.99 (USD) each.

Sometimes, we need a push to get moving. Baking used to be so fun for me before, but the older I grow (even if I’m just a ripe young twenty-two going on twenty-three in a few days), the more it becomes a chore, like a lot of other things that I used to enjoy and that are supposed to be enjoyable.

But there are some things that we can pick up along the way to spice things up and make everyday chores seem more fun again. Like the Pixel Oven Mitts.

I swear, even just looking at them makes me want to go bake or roast something in my oven just so I would be able to use them. And what could be better than baking cookies with these mitts? Why, if I happened to be baking pixelized cookies too, that’s what. I even found an album on Flickr that aims to teach people exactly how to do that. (And it actually looks more complicated than it sounds or seems.)

Technabob first spotted these pixel mittens a couple of years ago, but they were difficult to come by. Now, you can easily get your hands on a pair of Pixel Oven Mitts on Perpetual Kid for $16.99 (USD).

Just load the BAKON clock the night before with a few strips of frozen bacon, set the alarm to 15 minutes before you want to get out of bed, and when its time to wake up the next morning, the specially-modified toaster oven cooks you a batch of the tasty stuff, filling your pad with the heavenly bacon scent, readying it for you to eat just in time. And if that’s not enough to wake you, the BAKON oven also oinks like a pig at alarm time.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You can’t buy the BAKON clock in a store, but you can follow nelson8815′s build guide over on Instructables if you want to try and make one for yourself.

For harried days like that (which happen quite often for me), I just pop some bread into the toaster, dash around the house like a madwoman, and grab it before running out of the house. Sometimes it’s a little burnt on the edges, sometimes it’s still cold in the middle, and other times, I feel like I’m eating a black, bitter cookie.

So when I saw the Roastie toaster designed by Mateusz Główka, I was beyond excited.

Now that perfect slice of toast is well within arm’s reach. Although it’s still a concept design for now, I’d really love to see the Roastie toaster through until production.

For one, it looks extremely cool. What’s not to love about a fish-tank bubble-shaped toaster in your kitchen?

Besides appearances, it also promises to toast your bread to perfection in a shorter time than most conventional oven toasters do. Of course, the Roastie’s design could still use a little work, seeing as it can only accommodate one slice of bread at a time. But hey, for the perfect toast, I’m willing to compromise.

All this talk about toast is starting to make me hungry…

* pushes self away from desk and walks to the kitchen to make a pastrami sandwich *

The WaveBox weighs 14lbs, and its cooking cavity measures 10″ (w) x 7″ (d) x 6″ (h), so it should handle most pre-packaged meals without a problem. It has a luggage handle, ABS casing, and rubberized legs. But its most important feature is that the WaveBox can be powered in three ways.

The WaveBox has a detachable AC cord, so you can use it at home just like any other microwave. If you’re outdoors, you have two options – it comes with a 9ft. DC cable that you can clamp directly on to a 12v car or boat battery, and it also has a DC 12v cigarette lighter adapter. The third option though seems to have caused trouble for other users. The WaveBox needs a power outlet with a current of at least 20amps for it to work, and even then it’ll only be good for heating food, and not for cooking. Several people have complained that the outlets in most vehicles only have 15amps. You still have the option of plugging it directly into a 12v battery, but if you’re planning on using your vehicle’s lighter outlet, you should check if its outlet/s are rated at least 20amps.

If you just live without TV dinner and microwave pizza, then get a WaveBox. You can get one at Amazon for $203 (USD). Check out its official website for more info.

[via InventorSpot]

As a joke, probably. But, with all due respect to the designers, as a real product this could use a lot of refining. First of all, if you have no control over which YouTube video is going to be played then half the time you’ll be watching something that you won’t find entertaining. Worse, it may end up displaying naughty or nasty clips. You may consider it a pleasant surprise to when you find yourself confronted by a healthy serving of boobies while waiting for your Pop Tarts, but would you want your kids to see that? Would you want your kids to see you enjoying that?

But most of all, I just don’t want appliances to become needlessly expensive because of unnecessary add-ons like this. We might as well integrate a microwave oven into HDTVs. Hell, that would be a better gadget.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Check out Watanabe and Matsuda’s website for more details on the Castoven. Would you buy one?

[via CrunchGear]

Czeck modder Zbyšek built his Project MiniCooker PC that’s a dead ringer for his full-size cooktop, complete with blue LED “gas burners” that look just like the real deal.

He built the entire system by hand, including welding together the metal chassis, and creating custom plastic knobs and the fake burners out of acrylic.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Inside the oven door, you’ll find a fully functional PC, running a Pentium D820 3.5 GHz CPU, with 2GB of DDR2 RAM, and an nVidia 9600GT graphics card. And the DVD-RW drive is hidden in the bottom drawer where you’d usually put your spare pans.

You can check out the complete build log (in Czech) over at Modding.cz.

The Porta-Pizza oven could be just what the doctor ordered. This 12-volt pizza oven looks almost like an April Fools prank from The Onion, but it’s real. Now I’d be afraid that I’d kill my car battery with the amount of power you’d need to cook pizza, but what the heck do I know? And what’s to stop you from making toast in your front seat with this? Yay, toast on the go! Just plug it into your 12-volt accessory outlet, add your ingredients and get cookin’!

Now I thought people texting and driving were bad, but I bet dropping a scorching hot slice of melty mozzarella and pepperoni onto your lap is sure to get you into an accident or two.

This Stupidiotic invention is available from Stupidiotic for $36 (USD). I wonder if this is how Domino’s plans on reviving their 30-minutes or less promise now…

I give you the greatest kitchen accessory of 2009 – the Pac-Man Hothead oven mitt. New from Worldwide Fred.

[via Walyou]