New Smart Home Technology in 2018
Copper Horse’s Ryan Ng takes a look at some of the smart home technology that has taken in his interest in the first part of the year.
A few months into 2018 and we are already seeing a lot of new smart home technology, some of which are great ideas and useful devices, but others which are questionable.
To kick-start this year we had the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January where lots of new products and concepts were shown off. This included all kinds of tech including cars, TVs, and of course smart home devices. A noticeable trend in a lot of the devices announced is that they are providing support for two of the biggest smart home competitors, Amazon and Google. Providing Alexa and Google Assistant support allows these products to be better integrated into customers’ homes for those who already own an Amazon Echo or Google Home speaker, so they can control their devices via voice commands.
Another big event which took place this year was Mobile World Congress (MWC) which happened at the end of February. This event not only showed off a load of new smartphones, but it also again showed off a wide range of other technologies including smart home devices.
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Here are some of the latest smart home devices shown off at these events that took my interest:
Lenovo Smart Display with Google Assistant
Google has teamed up with Lenovo to create a new product to compete with the Amazon Echo Show which was released in 2017. This smart display is essentially a Google Home speaker with an 8” or 10” display (depending on the model) attached to visually show information when asked. The Smart Display can also be used to perform video calls via the Google Duo application. It is very similar to Amazon’s Echo Show product and it remains to be seen whether users will take to this or prefer a voice-only product.
Samsung Family Hub Refrigerator
Samsung showed off its latest smart fridge powered by its virtual assistant Bixby. This refrigerator also acts as a SmartThings hub for all SmartThings enabled home automation devices. It has a huge touch display on the door which allows users to see inside the fridge using internal cameras, make shopping lists, play games, check the weather and more.
Smart Shower System Livin
A team from Fitbit and Foxconn have developed a new product in the smart home market called Livin. This is a smart shower system designed to minimise water waste and can be installed within 15 minutes. It features precise temperature controls via a smartphone that allows you to preheat the water before turning the shower on. It also features smart lighting and music playback with a knob for in-shower temperature and music controls.
Laundroid Laundry-Folding Robot
A Japanese company called Seven Dreamers showcased their latest model of Laundroid, a product which uses artificial intelligence to sort and fold your clothes. This is one of the more questionable products shown off as I do not expect the average consumer to spend $16,000 on a machine to fold and sort their clothes.
The new smart home technology featured above is only a small selection of products which have recently been announced and there will be many more to come in this year alone. It remains to be seen how successful or secure they’ll be, or most importantly, how useful.
