It took 10 years to develop this $300 toaster. Bread may never be the same
After 10 years of design and development, the appliance maker Breville has just released a $300 toaster that the company believes will revolutionize the category. The Eye Q Auto Toaster, now hitting stores in the U.S., rethinks the core process behind making a piece of toast. Instead of applying heat for a set amount of time, Breville’s Eye Q toaster uses optical sensors and advanced algorithms…
After a decade-long development effort, Breville has released a $300 toaster called the Eye Q Auto Toaster, which the company claims will revolutionize the bread toasting category. This innovative toaster uses optical sensors and advanced algorithms to determine when bread has been perfectly toasted, rather than relying on a fixed time duration.
Traditionally, every toaster has used time as a proxy for toasting - but this method only works if the bread is consistent. Breville's research shows that homes often toast various types of bread, including white, wheat, bagels, and sourdough. Different types of bread require different toasting times.
The toaster features two optical sensors built into its shell, which measure the rate of color change in the bread as it sits in the toasting cavity. With seven built-in darkness settings and specially developed algorithms, the toaster can determine when the toast has reached the desired level of brownness.
To test the toaster, the reporter toasted a variety of breads, from pale sourdough to seeded multigrain and grainy bagels, using the lightest, middle, and darkest settings. The breads turned out browned but not burnt. The simple interface, with a few setting buttons and a large start/stop button, makes the process easy to use. The only minor setback was when a thick bagel got jammed, misaligning with the sensor view and resulting in singeing.
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