Checking out the trash

On "The Jetsons," when George got hungry, he just pushed a couple of buttons on the Food-a-Rac-a-Cycle on the kitchen counter. In seconds, a freshly synthesized meal appeared on a plate, prepared to his exact specifications.

In the real world, food-synthesis science is only in its infancy, as you know if you've ever tasted fake blueberries in a muffin. But there is a machine that could be the Food-a-Rac-a-Cycle's great-great grandfather: a new countertop appliance called the Ikan.

The mission of this $400 device is to eliminate your trips to the grocery store. The hardware component is a bulbous bar code scanner, dressed up in Any-Decor White and mounted on a countertop stand, an undercabinet bracket or a wall mount. It offers a small color screen on the front, a laser scanner underneath and a Wi-Fi antenna inside that connects to your home wireless network.

Each time you're about to recycle or throw away an empty container -- for ketchup, cereal, pickles, milk, macaroni, paper towels, dog food or whatever -- you just pass its bar code under the scanner. The Ikan beeps, consults its online database of 1 million products, and displays the full name and description.

In a clear, friendly font, the screen might say: "Nabisco Reduced Fat Ritz Crackers 14.5 Oz.," for example. Now you can toss the box, content that its replacement has been added to your shopping list.

After a few days of this, you can review the list online at Ikan.net -- and if everything looks good, click once to have everything delivered to your house at a time you specify.

Maybe it's not exactly a Food-a-Rac-a-Cycle. But at least it's the Netflix of groceries.

Reactions to this gizmo are all over the map. Old-school homemakers may consider it a silly redundancy. How much more effort is it, they ask, to maintain a handwritten shopping list? And isn't going to the grocery store more than just a time drain? Isn't it also a little outing, a small source of pride and accomplishment, an opportunity for social interaction?

Other people can't believe the amount of time this system saves. You've just compressed a two-hour weekly errand into about 10 minutes. All you have to do is approve the illustrated, error-proof online shopping list, and then let somebody else battle the traffic, haul the bags and pay for the gas.

The Ikan company has found that customers' reactions also depend on age, income and location (city vs. suburb, for example). But before you decide, consider some of the less apparent aspects of the Ikan.

First, there's an environmental benefit. A big green Recycle log appears on the Ikan's screen whenever you scan a package that's recyclable in your town, warning you not to throw it away; very, very smart. (The company researches each municipality's recycling policy individually as Ikan units are purchased, so the logo may not appear the first day you own the Ikan.)

Furthermore, consolidating many deliveries on a single truck removes a number of cars from the road, providing an additional green benefit.

Above all, though, your happiness with the Ikan will depend on what grocery delivery is available in your area.

In Manhattan and certain New York suburbs, the Ikan is smoothly integrated with the D'Agostino grocery chain. For example, if you want something that has no bar code, like fresh fruit, you can press a Voice Reminder button and simply speak it: "Six green bananas." A D'Agostino representative on the other end will manually add the requested item to your order.

If you live beyond New York City, you may be able to get delivery from a company like Peapod, which offers service through stores in 10 states. SimonDelivers, the New Hope-based Internet grocery delivery service, is considering using the Ikan device in the future. But more technical work would be needed to integrate the Ikan with simondelivers.com, and the $400 price of the Ikan would need to come down in order to make it more practical for consumers, said Kelly Westman, principal information technology architect for SimonDelivers.

Most of the Ikan's current weaknesses stem from its fledgling status, not from design or concept problems. It's incredibly solid and speedy in performing its central functions: recognizing your home network, identifying products you're scanning and transmitting them instantly to the Web. Even teenagers aren't likely to skip the Ikan step, since it's so much fun to scan things.

The Ikan's appeal is likely to blossom as the company develops partnerships with more store chains, as more features are added and as the price goes down.

Staff writer Steve Alexander contributed to this story.