A smirk crossed my face when I read yesterday’s email from GE Profile describing their new refrigerator with a “media center with seven-inch LCD screen.”

About 7 years ago on a press trip to Korea, LG introduced a refrigerator with an LCD screen for watching TV and some other unnecessary oddities that I can no longer recall. Ridiculous, I thought, after all who wants to stand in front of their refrigerator and watch TV?

At that time I suggested to our host — the executive vice president of the LG Electronics — that they instead should create something more useful with their advanced technology.

My thoughts included a unit that scanned the UPC codes of what’s put into and comes out of the refrigerator and freezer to both keep a current log of what you had on hand and provide preparation options based on those ingredients. My hypothetical unit knew — and told you — when the food should be tossed. It calculated that from the date the food was first put into the fridge, and the number and length of times it was removed. It also kept an up-to-date grocery list.

Now that would be useful, not just an expensive gadget to illustrate your wealth. In 2001, that LG refrigerator sold for over $10,000. (I still wonder who bought it.)

When I opened the email about the GE Profile™ 25.8-cubic-foot bottom-freezer refrigerator with LCD media center, I had high hopes for something really useful.

Boy was I wrong!

For $3200, you get a fridge with a refreshment center (access to snack foods and beverages, without opening the full door) along with an LCD screen. This one allows you to find recipe substitutions, unit conversions and some nutrition information. And, oh yes, also show your family photos.

Innovative? Not hardly.

I’m still trying to figure out how to convince those bright engineers and manufacturers to add something that’s really useful.