Jesus seems to make a habit of appearing on toast, but what if you want something a bit different, like an appointment reminder or the weather forecast? The Toasteroid is a smart toaster designed to provide such versatility with the ability to burn a customized image, message or weather forecast into your bread, or even send a "toastage" message to a friend's toaster.
Toasters that burn the shape of a cartoon character into the bread have been around for years, as have smart toasters that run away when neglected or take inspiration from Google images. Toasteroid makes things customizable with an app that acts as a canvas for your breakfast or, if you're in a hurry, you can pick from a range of preset images or notifications, like the day's weather forecast.
With the help of a sliding scale of brownness, the Brooklyn-based company responsible for the device claim Toasteroid produces "the most perfect piece of toast you've ever had", so at least the gimmick doesn't completely overrule the appliance's primary function.
Once the finished design is sent from a smartphone to the toaster via Bluetooth, a grid of microfilament heating elements recreates the image or message. Your breakfast can remind you of that dentist appointment, let you know to rug up before leaving the house, or impress the kids with your emoji mastery. Suddenly deities appearing in bread don't seem quite so miraculous.
And you're not limited to your own device: proposing a toast to a friend would take on a whole new meaning, as users can send messages to each other that are only readable through the medium of toast. Why not stand out from the barrage of boring Happy Birthday posts on a friend's Facebook wall by burning the message into their breakfast instead? Or play a game of tic-tac-toast? You'll just have to like eating toast.
Toasteroid is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter, where you can get one for a pledge of US$85, or get $5 off with the Early Bird special. So far the campaign has raised over $20,000 of its $150,000 goal, with 41 days remaining.
Check it out in the video below.
Source: Toasteroid
