A gas grill that tells you when to flip the burgers

The majority of grill users are men, and most wouldn’t give up their spatula without a fight. For the few who would, there’s the voice-activated Lynx Smart Grill, a prototype of which is on display at the International CES 2014.

Officially called the Lynx Concept Grill, the gas grill employs voice recognition technology to  automatically cook foods based on user commands.But don't think you’re running the show. Its recipes are programmed in by the pros at the manufacturer. Your job is to tell the grill what you want cooked. The grill then fetches the optimal grilling time and technique from an online database—and tells you where on the grill to place each item. It will text you when the food is done or tell you when to flip the burgers. You can interact with the grill through voice commands or the included app.

If you want to grill the old fashioned way, you can set the grill to manual mode. The Lynx Smart Grill is expected to ship in 2015, but it won’t be edging you off your deck anytime soon. It’ll reportedly cost $7,000.
 
Interested in a grill that gives you consistent performance—and lets you make your own mistakes? Read our buying guide for gas grills before checking out our Ratings of more than 160 models.

—Ed Perratore