The Korean giant unveiled on the CES stage in Las Vegas its best flagships designed for smart homes
LG went all in on artificial intelligence and IoT for CES 2017, and it nailed it. Its Hub Robot, a next-generation personal assistant, stunned with its blue eyes and functions that leverage Amazon’s Alexa artificial intelligence and voice recognition.
The robot is able to understand, respond and perform many actions autonomously such as, for example, heating the oven before we return home. It is a robot that goes in the direction of smart home management by communicating with all other smart devices and appliances in the home. Like the InstaView Door-in-Door fridge that features a large multi-function display. No less surprising are the new flat screen TVs, or rather very flat, from the W series, where “wall” stands for “wall”. In short, so thin that you could mistake them for an open window to the world.
A robot at your command
The Korean company is betting on robots, not the ones that do the house cleaning, but a series of personal assistants that take advantage of artificial intelligence and voice recognition Alexa developed by Amazon. Will this be, by any chance, a competitor to the Amazon Echo and Google Home smart speakers? Some features are similar such as responding to certain commands, or acting autonomously, and playing music tracks or sending alerts related to weather conditions. The difference is that the “round-faced” Hub Robots with big blue eyes are also capable of interfacing with other smart devices made by LG, explains David VanderWaal, vice president of marketing, home appliances and consumer. How? By telling, for example, the oven to start heating, or to start the robot vacuum cleaner when you leave the house, to turn on the washing machine or communicate with the refrigerator. It is no coincidence that LG has called it Hub Robot, precisely because a “hub” is the nerve center of a network to which all devices converge … a sort of command center. LG proposes a fixed Hub Robot of two sizes – one larger and the other much more “Mini” that acts a bit ‘as a “repeater” to be placed around the house – and an Airport Robot, roughly one meter high, with wheels to move and a large curved display on the front. Its use is obvious: a guide for travelers inside an airport to provide information, answer questions about places to visit and more.
Super-smart refrigerator
The Hub Robot is a nice idea, but on its own it can’t unleash its full potential if it’s not accompanied by other smart appliances. Which, of course, LG produces. Like the Smart InstaView Door-in-Door refrigerator, already glimpsed at IFA Berlin last October. This smart home appliance also relies on Alexa technology and is able to integrate into the digital home ecosystem designed by the Korean company. It is able to play music and communicate with other smart devices within the four walls of the home. But, thanks to Amazon’s virtual assistant, it can also do the shopping via the Amazon Dash service, while the presence of webOS allows it to keep track of the expiration of various products. The front 29-inch touch display with 1080p resolution provides useful information about the refrigerator and its contents, but also serves as a notepad to leave digital notes if needed. InstaView technology makes the display as transparent as glass so you can take a look inside without opening the door.
Wall-mounted TVs
And to “frame” the presentation of smart robots and fridges, here come the W series TVs, or “Picture-on-Wall”, so thin that they look like pictures hanging on the wall. These super-flat screen TVs, available with 65 and 77 inch OLED displays, follow LG’s “less is more” philosophy where everything superfluous is eliminated: rather than watching TV, it’s almost like staring out the window. The 65-inch model, just to give you an example, is only 2.57 mm thick! At these levels, also can not miss the best technologies in circulation. Both models, support the full range of HDR (High Dynamic Range Imaging) formats, including Dolby Vision, HDR10 and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma) and Dolby Atmos audio. In short, the ultimate in hi-tech currently available. LG has, however, not yet provided information on either pricing or availability.