More comfort to everyday life

Smart home can really make people’s lives easier. Here are some plusses to underline to the consumer to make him understand the real benefits of intelligent devices in terms of comfort

by Elena Corti

In the smart home, comfort is made possible by connected and smart devices that allow the users to take advantage of new opportunities and services. There are already a lot of household appliances (from White Goods, to Small Appliances, to Air Conditioning), whose features can be managed remotely with an App: one of the main comfort aspects of smart appliances is just the ease with which they can be used; they do not require particular technical skills or complex installation procedures and are managed with tools commonly used by consumers, such as smartphones and tablets. But comfort is not just about remote control of products, it’s also about getting more customization and obtaining use advice, monitoring consumptions, receiving notifications about the state of the appliances maintenance and, depending on the models, using services like doing shopping on-line from the fridge or buying the washing machine or dishwasher detergent automatically. Another important element to highlight is that connected appliances, just thanks to their ability in acquiring data and interacting with the user, are able to provide useful information and learn user preferences.

In the kitchen, for example, the refrigerator with internal cameras can show what’s in the appliance on the smartphone and help consumer’s memory while shopping at the supermarket. Moreover, with certain types of oven, the user can comfortably see video-recipes using the product door as a screen, while with smart coffee machines it is possible to store personal preferences about the dispensed beverages.

In addition, when the end user is cooking, he can easily keep the air clean with a hood able to dialogue with the hob. Regarding laundry, using an App, the customer can, for example, know how much time is missing to the end of the cycle and get advice on the suitable program to activate. Additionally, some models also allow the washing machine and the dryer to communicate in such a way that the latter pre-sets the most appropriate drying parameters. Great comfort is also obtained with to use of a robotic vacuum cleaner for floor cleaning. It is possible to switch on the product with the cell phone and also program the activation: the robot cleans effectively instead of the consumer, avoiding the obstacles.

Finally, there are also smart solutions that ensure comfort and ease of life even in the personal care: the smart toothbrush, for example, through the App, shows the user if he is brushing his teeth properly; the connected balance, on the other hand, computes the body composition and automatically sends the data on the smartphone or tablet so that people can accurately control their physical fitness; and some types of pulsed light epilators, through an App, help to make epilation perfect and optimize the use of the appliance.

Smart entertainment

Also appliances for domestic entertainment are experiencing a revolution that makes them connected and able to offer more functionality. Starting with smart televisions, which create a convergence between the computer world and entertainment: they can, for example, surf the web, streaming, show pictures or videos, play music, allow the access to social networks and view programs on demand. And it is also possible to share content directly from the smartphone in order to watch videos or photos on the TV screen.

Additionally, audio devices can be combined to TV for a latest generation home cinema experience. The soundbar, for example, creates an appealing sound and can be connected to a wireless subwoofer, that can easily be placed on the user preferred room area. Moreover, thanks to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth compatibility, there are soundbar and speaker models that connect to mobile devices, allowing music playback and audio streaming.

In addition, with multiroom wireless speaker systems, the user can comfortably listen to favorite music in multiple home rooms from smartphones, tablets, or computers. Finally, among the latest news, there are smart speakers with the integrated Google Assistant.

Delegate to the smart home How does a smart device make everyday life more comfortable? We talked about it to Antonio Bosio, Samsung Product & Solutions Director, who explains how smart home can "widen" life, giving us more free time. How can the smart home increase consumer comfort? Sensors and smart devices simplify the users’ lives and can even anticipate their needs. Thanks to an advanced data use, the smart home manages to "know" what we like and what we do not like, so it dynamically fits our needs. Moreover, it is a home that creates a pleasant sensation of quiet because it allows to keep everything under control. A further comfort is given by the fact that smart devices are able to carry out some actions instead of man. Our Family Hub fridge (see also the post "The Cool Evolution"http://www.homeappliancesworld.com/2017/11/30/the-cool-evolution/ ), for example, is a product able to recognize food inside it, thanks to the cameras it is equipped with. In a very short time it will be able to cross this information with other data (for example, the historical consumption of food, the diet recommended by the nutritionist or the black list of foods that the user does not have to consume) and do the shopping alone so that it is delivered directly to home. Sometimes, in fact, to make the shopping can become a stressful factor for people, especially for those who work a lot: so it is a comfort factor to be able to delegate this activity to an algorithm. Do you think there will be further developments in smart home? Much has been done, but there is still work to do. In my opinion, there are two particularly important aspects to work on: to explain the real benefits of smart home to people and to reason with an open approach to avoid that the many potentially connectible home products cannot dialogue to each other. We are working on both the ambits: we communicate to our end customers that products and services for smart home are already a concrete reality and we are also finishing to develop (when the interview is realized) the Samsung Connect solution that will make it possible to interact not only the Samsung home appliances but also the devices of different manufacturers. Do you think that the connected refrigerator can be an innovation vehicle also for other sectors, for example, making sure that food packaging can be read by the appliance in order to signal the food expiry date? In the prospect, yes, but this will require the collaboration of various parties in the food sector. We are already trying to make the actors of the supply chain aware and set ourselves as a technology enabler.