Baidu launched Open Kitchen project for restaurants whoever participated in will open up their kitchens to internet users, based on Baidu’s video streaming and cloud computing technology.
Last month, one of McDonald’s and KFC’s suppliers was accused of selling rotten meat; Open Kitchen program is helpful for restaurants facing the deteriorating food safety concerns in China.
Taking a closer look at a few participating restaurants, the video quality is good with quite good sound quality, but video doesn’t seem to cover a wide angle of the kitchen (not to mention 360 degree view for real transparency). It is not so transparent. And, the live video streaming only covers a specified time period. Being checked at about eight in the evening, many have already ended the live video steaming.
What’s in it for Baidu?
Besides publicity side of benefits and its contribution to healthy and safe dining in China, the program definitely helps promote Baidu’s video streaming service based on Baidu Cloud.
The hardware supporting this project is also from Baidu called iErmu, currently available on JD.com at RMB388 (US$63). Similar to Dropcam but much cheaper, iErmu comes with supplementing cloud storage service.
