LG brings LINE to internet enabled fridges, ovens, washing machines and more
LG Corp. is bringing LINE Corp.’s popular messaging platform to your smart fridge, oven and even air conditioner in 2015 with an update to its HomeChat virtual assistant service.
The functionality will allow users to communicate, control, monitor and share content through text and voice messages from the LINE messenger app on their mobile devices.
LG notes that the functionality will allow users to save energy by utilizing modes such as “vacation” and “leaving home,” while the coming home mode means users can use LINE to do things like turn on their air conditioner, or requesting recipe ideas from their smart oven.
“We find that consumers always look for an easier way to manage their busy households, and HomeChat helps simplify the process of communicating with appliances. Now, users can ‘speak’ naturally with their appliances through text without having to input special computer commands,” Senior Vice President of Home Appliance at LG Electronics USA T.J. Lee said in a statement.
LINE pretty much everywhere
The new range of LINE enabled LG smart fridges provide users with real-time status updates which the company claims is most helpful when grocery shopping as users can see what’s currently in the fridge from its interior camera. When you’re not using LINE to remotely operate your range of smart devices, you can even post sticker laden selfies to your fridge so others can bask in the glory of your kawaii heavy handy work.
For your internet enabled washing machine and dryer, users can use LINE to “quickly and simply monitor laundry progress, seeing how much time is left in a cycle and even remotely stopping cycles altogether if needed.”
In the kitchen, along with cooking food, your oven will message you on LINE with recipe ideas and cooking instructions. You can also remotely monitor the status of the oven when cooking.
In an arguably more desirable product such as LG’s Music Flow Wi-Fi portable speakers, you can “communicate directly with the speakers with simple text commands such as ‘play songs for party’ or ‘turn off music after one hour.'”
It’s easy to mock the announcement; few would want their oven hassling them over what they should be cooking for dinner every day, but as the internet of things weaves its way into more and more aspects of our lives, more announcements like this are to be expected. Just make your you’ve got plenty of bandwidth with your Wifi, and your partner doesn’t think your cheating on them when your air conditioner messages you on LINE at 2am in the morning.
The formal unveiling of the products will be at CES next week in Las Vegas.
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