Business | Technology
Smart appliances herald connected home concept
New devices offer remote accessibility and multitasking functions
- AFP
- Published: 00:00 January 14, 2012
Las Vegas: You're at work when you get word of unexpected dinner guests. No problem. Smart appliances to the rescue.
In a world made possible by innovations unveiled last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, you could whip out your smartphone on your bus or train ride home.
You use the virtual joystick to steer your camera-equipped vacuum robot around the living room, activating the speaker to tell the pet to get off the couch.
You switch to the application on your phone which allows you to check recipes against the contents of your refrigerator, which sends you a text message telling you you're out of milk.
Once you've decided what you're going to cook, you inform your refrigerator, which tells the oven to begin pre-heating based on the recipe you've selected.
Floor-cleaning robots, refrigerators and ovens on display at the annual CES gadget fest can do all of the above — and more.
"The progress we've made over the last year on smart appliances from where we were last year at CES to where we are today is just staggering," said Kevin Messner, vice-president of the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.
Inventory manager
A refrigerator at the LG booth at CES has a touchscreen built into the front with a ‘food manager' function that provides an inventory of what's inside, where items are located — orange juice, left door — and expiration dates. You compile the inventory of what's in your refrigerator by taking a photo of your receipt from the grocery store with your smartphone and sending it to your fridge, or by scanning the barcode of each item individually.
A refrigerator being offered by LG rival Samsung lets you shop from select stores by dragging and dropping icons of various items — apples or eggs, for example — on a touchscreen and having the groceries delivered to your door.
A floor-cleaning robot from LG has not one but three cameras and yes, you can call it from your smartphone and tell the dog to get off the furniture.
Warwick Stirling, global manager of energy and sustainability for Whirlpool, said smart appliances are just part of what is known as the "connected home".
Jon Van Dore, senior product development manager for China's Haier, said rapidly changing technology poses a particular challenge for home appliance manufacturers, whose products are intended to last for a long time.
"Technology has a life span of one to two years," Van Dore said, holding up his cellphone. "We have a life span of 10 to 20 years."
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