You simply arrived residence from the grocery retailer with the substances wanted to make the basil pesto pasta recipe you discovered on-line.
As you chop the onions and garlic, concurrently scrolling in your telephone between the ingredient checklist and directions, your display turns into moist and sticky — an issue that persists all through the cooking course of.
This scene is unquestionably acquainted to residence cooks dwelling on this digital period.
Natalie Tannous and Brent McCarthy wish to flip this course of on its head with Myka, a hands-free, voice-activated iPhone software that helps residence cooks develop their very own recipes.
The impetus for the enterprise stems from frustrations the couple had when attempting to re-create dishes they ate whereas touring.
“Once you’re truly attempting to make the dish and document the steps that you simply’re doing, writing it down failed,” Tannous stated. “All these little issues that simply make the recipe scrumptious on the finish, you form of neglect them.”
Myka, quick for My Kitchen Assistant, may also help, the couple stated.
Right here is how the iPhone software works:
After opening the app, place your telephone on the counter and say one thing alongside the strains of, “Hey Myka, create new recipe” to start your recipe session. As you construct your recipe, document your steps — when you neglect a step, merely notify the app, and its synthetic intelligence know-how will modify the recipe.
As soon as full, the brand new recipe will probably be positioned in a digital cookbook catalog with recipes that Myka can learn again to the consumer when prompted.
“She extracts the ingredient and the amount, after which she waits to maneuver on,” McCarthy stated. ”You actually shouldn’t have to take a look at your telephone to determine what’s happening.”
Myka was formally launched on April 30, 2021, and it presently has round 350 customers. Regardless of these modest numbers, Tannous and McCarthy stay optimistic concerning the software’s future, saying they’ve lastly discovered builders who can execute their full imaginative and prescient.
“I feel the most important problem we’ve encountered is outsourcing the work and the language barrier,” Tannous stated. “Now, we’re very happy with our staff that now we have.”
Tannous stated she enjoys utilizing the app to tweak conventional Center Jap recipes she discovered from her mom, who was born in Jordan. The flexibility to go away notes that Myka recites again helps when including new substances or making last-minute modifications to a recipe, she stated.
Transferring ahead, the couple desires to enhance the synthetic intelligence side of the app to make Myka extra intuitive and conversational.
“That’s our principal purpose, and that’s one thing now we have our builders engaged on each day,” McCarthy stated.
Beside that and rising Myka’s following, Tannous and McCarthy hope to create a social platform by which skilled and residential cooks can observe others and add their digital cookbooks.
The Myka app presently has about 40 recipes for customers to select from, three of which come pre-downloaded. Obtainable within the iPhone app retailer, Myka prices $4.99 per 30 days or $29.99 per 12 months and comes with a free seven-day trial.
The app is presently solely out there for iPhone customers, however the firm plans to broaden to Androids within the close to future.