I dunno about you, but I waste many minutes out of my valuable time EVERY SINGLE DAY trying to arrange the dishes in my dishwasher in the optimum configuration - assuring that the largest number of dishes can get washed at one time, while still also allowing for maximum exposed surfaces and minimal blockage of water flow.

What I need, clearly, is a dishwasher stacking smartphone app. I would tell this app what kind of dishwasher I have (assuming that it can't just remotely access the relevant real estate or credit card records) and then take a picture of the pile of dishes I have to deal with. Complex pattern-recognition software would recognize what dishes I have, how big they are, and how dirty. 3D tessellation routines would quickly cycle through the possible permutations, given the configuration of the dishwasher trays, select the best possible arrangement, and then show me what to put where.

Then I could go do something more useful and productive, like putting my socks in alphabetical order.
-- smendler, Apr 05 2014

If this works, we'll need something else to argue with our roommates/SO's. Perhaps the app can compensate by bringing up how to properly discuss exes?
-- sophocles, Apr 06 2014


In this story the app gets the last laugh after it rightly suggests a haphazard arrangement of dishes (for all makes of dishwasher) that yields the optimum chaotic and turbulent flow of water.
-- the porpoise, Apr 08 2014


The algorithm could also self-learn through A/B tests. It'd just need a way for customers to rate the efficacy of the last recommendation.
-- sophocles, Apr 09 2014



random, halfbakery