Thursday, March 16, 2017

Is Your Refrigerator Awesome Enough?

Via Twitter: Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerator, which sells for around $6,000, has a computer touch screen that covers most of one door. A water dispenser takes up much of the other. The refrigerator streams music, shows television shows by connecting with Samsung TVs, syncs family members’ calendars, displays photos and lets users post notes on the refrigerator screen from remote locations. Three built-in cameras take a photo every time the refrigerator’s doors close. The photos can be accessed via phone, allowing users to remotely see what’s inside—and what’s missing, like if the chocolate cake has been eaten up.

Eventually, the refrigerator screens will get prettier, too, Mr. Lee says, comparing it to the flattering, slimming effect flat-screen innovation had on television sets. “Over time, this technology will get sleeker and sleeker in terms of the look,” says Mr. Lee. “We might have it blend so well into the refrigerator so that when it’s off you won’t see there’s a screen there.”

LG Electronics’ InstaView refrigerator door includes a window so users can peek inside after tapping twice on the tinted glass panel. A door-in-door design lets consumers access some shelves without opening the entire refrigerator. The innovations in the fridge, which sells for $4,300 to $8,500, are meant to add convenience and preserve cold air amid Americans’ propensity for perusing: A U.S. household of four people opens the refrigerator about 15 to 20 times a day, according to LG research. “People spend 10.4 hours a year just staring into an open refrigerator,” says LG’s Mr. VanderWaal.

Later this year, LG plans to roll out a “smart” version of its InstaView refrigerator that includes a touch screen, compatibility with Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa and an internal panoramic camera that lets users remotely view photos of their fridge’s contents.

“Convenience never gets outdated,” says Mr. VanderWaal of the speculation that the models will quickly lose their modernity. Consumers initially had the same hesitation to invest in LG’s smart televisions. “It’s going to last.”

(Link to the entire article)

8 comments:

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

“People spend 10.4 hours a year just staring into an open refrigerator,”

1st world problems.

Chip Ahoy said...

How many minutes is .4 hours?

That decimal throws everything off. Our hour must have 100 minutes for that decimal to work. Our clocks show ten hours, not twelve. So our day has twenty hours of 100 minute filled hours. And all that's very different. To figure it out you have to make it 100 minutes per hour for 4/10 of those shorter minutes. At any rate, 100 or 60 per hour, the decimal .4 is one unit short of half an hour, so then, like, twenty-five minutes. (ignore dots)

4 ..... ?
__ = ___

10.... 12

The number will be more than 4 and less than 6.

Whadaya know the 5 for 5/12 of an hour is printed right there on a regular clock.

MATHS!

But here's the thing. Wasn't that brassy woman who's always causing Cointreauversy with feet on the sofa and such who said recently that microwaves will be turned into cameras? I never read anything but I sure did see a lot of headlines.






Trooper York said...

My refrigerator beeps at me when I don't close the door properly.

The bitch.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

I don't want a "smart" appliance. I don't care if it has a computer. Smart cars, Smart TV....Just more parts to break and be repaired.

I want a refrigerator that works, won't break down. One where the Freon isn't that new crap that eats up the freezer components every 5 years. We have one freezer with the old Freon, now banned for some reason, that is over 40 years old and still works like a champ.

I don't want my appliance to talk to me, show me movies or interact with me in any other way than to do what I want it to do, what it promised to do when you push the buttons, turn the dial.

Oh...and I want one where the ice maker works and the damned cubes don't get hung up in the ejector so you find out you are out of ice when you decide to have that evening cocktail.

ampersand said...

Great. So your fridge sends your eating habits to Homeland Security/Michelle Obama food police section and they can monitor everything you eat. One ounce over your weight allowance and the HAL 3.0 software locks you out of the house.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

ampersand - (and swears at you) idiocracy is real.

"Shut the door, fatso."

Leland said...

I got the Samsung with the Sodastream built in; that's as smart as I got (it makes some cocktails a bit easier). I also have Samsung washer and dryer which annoyingly sing to you, for a long time; whenever they finish whatever.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I had that idea for a transparent fridge a long time ago. On account of my father going raving mad whenever we kids did that.. paruse the contents of the fridge in a contemplative pose.