Entrepreneurs use their loaves to make some dough

THREE Adelaide entrepreneurs have developed a hi-tech toaster that may be the best thing since sliced bread.

Andrew Richardson, Kristopher Rowland and Sean Manning have earned a $50,000 grant to develop the perfect toaster. Picture: C...

SOMETIMES the best ideas just pop into your head.

Three Adelaide entrepreneurs have developed a hi-tech toaster that may be the best thing since sliced bread - or at least since the invention of the pop-up toaster nearly 100 years ago.

Employing sensor technology to determine exactly how toasted the bread is, rather than simply how long it's been toasting as appliances do now, the toaster developed by SA firm SensAbility has earned the company a $50,000 State Government grant to develop its product.

The idea was inspired by Dr Andrew Richardson's complaints to his colleagues that his landlord's habit of freezing bread meant the toaster's timer was set too high and he'd have burnt toast for breakfast.

Co-founder Dr Sean Manning said he, Dr Richardson and Dr Kristopher Rowland thought there must be a way to use technology to overcome this and, three years later, they are almost ready to market a toaster that will stop toasting once the desired shade is reached.

"The biggest problem with bread is there are so many different sorts," Dr Manning said.

"If bread is a little stale it will take less time to cook and raisin toast tends to burn quickly because of all the sugar, whereas when bread is frozen it takes longer," he said.

He said changing the dial on conventional toasters only adjusted the length of toasting time, but the sensor technology would make sure toast always came out the same shade, no matter what sort of bread was used.

Skills Minister Grace Portolesi said sometimes it was the small things that made a big difference to everyday living.

"We have great talent in SA and the government is pleased to support businesses like SensAbility to develop their ideas," she said