For many years
gadget hounds have been wondering just when modest home appliances will lastly
get “smarter”. Internet-enabled domestic gear has been around for a while now;
washing-machines that can download new guidelines on settings for fragile
fabrics, for example, or ovens that go online to find the perfect hotness for
the tasty chicken tandoori you prepared earlier; iRobot’s Roomba has already
vacuumed many a floor.
But now family
devices are getting cleverer still. South Korean electronics giant LG has just
launched the first in a series of crop that form the suitably futuristically
misspelled "Thinq" range. What is dissimilar now is that companies
such as LG are building smart networks around smartphones and other wireless
equipment that give a person liberty to roam while remotely controlling their
refrigerator, washing machine, oven, etc. LG’s robotic vacuum-cleaner, the
HOM-BOT, can be controlled to clean your home while you are away, via your
smartphone. The energy use of all the devices in LG's network is together
monitored, and wash cycles, for instance, can be planned to coincide with
off-peak times.
LG first unveiled
the thin range earlier this year at the consumer-electronics show in Las Vegas.
The first manufactured goods to be launched commercially are its smart fridge,
which went on sale this week. As well as modifying its power expenditure to minimise
energy bills, it can also automatically diagnose faults, and inform the service
centre what the difficulty is. Those fastidious enough to want to physically
key in the contents of their fridge along with expiry dates can be told via
their phones to choose up a fresh box of eggs (or a carton of beer) on the way
home. Most probably barcode scanners that can do this mechanically cannot be
too far away.
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