One step closer to the home of the upcoming

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.