iaomi engineers decided that ordinary buttons and smoke detectors are no longer enough for you, and built full-scale computer vision right into a kitchen range hood. The flagship Mijia Smart Range Hood 3 Max has debuted in China with a price tag of 6,000 yuan (about $890), though local state subsidies drop the cost to 4,600 yuan (roughly $685).
Optical gunsight for cutlets
The main exotic feature of the new device is a 3-megapixel camera linked to a VLA neural network model. The system scans the stovetop every 0.1 seconds and adjusts its operation mode in just 0.6 seconds after spotting smoke or steam. Why bother engineering video analytics where ordinary infrared or thermal sensors have worked reliably for years? The answer is dead simple: smart home marketing demands fresh pretexts for you to buy things.
The computer vision system relies on a 3-megapixel camera and a VLA model trained on more than 100,000 real cooking videos.
At the same time, the lens points straight into the zone of boiling grease and splashes, meaning you will have to clean the protective camera glass just as regularly as your cooktop.
Hardware under the hood
Strip away the neural network gimmicks, and you are left with a powerful appliance. The hood packs a 360-watt motor and a four-vortex airflow design. Maximum airflow velocity reaches 17.5 m/s, while maximum static pressure hits 1,700 Pa — more than enough to shove air through even the most stubborn apartment building ventilation shaft. You get eight power levels to choose from, and noise maxes out at a tolerable 59 dB(A). The device also comes equipped with a fine PM2.5 particle sensor featuring an intuitive three-color air quality indicator.
Paying extra for video-based smoke recognition only makes sense for hardcore automation obsessives. If you are shopping for a kitchen hood right now, measure the diameter of your ventilation duct and test the draft with a sheet of paper — if your exhaust pipe is weak, even the fastest artificial intelligence will not save you from the lingering stench of fried fish.