In the new age of the Internet of Things (IoT), it’s all about devices and appliances around us communicating to make our lives easier and better. That’s exactly what Samsung’s newest technologies showcased recently at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 in Las Vegas. With the mantra of “Do What You Can’t,” Samsung showcased its vision of a more connected, seamless lifestyle through Samsung City, the company’s interactive home at CES 2018.
Samsung City
The first stop at Samsung City was the Home District, where guests got acquainted with the company’s personalized intelligent service for mobile devices and home appliances, Bixby Everywhere.
Bixby Everywhere
The Home District was focused to showcase Samsung’s commitment in creating a Multi-Device Experience, with Bixby and the SmartThings IoT ecosystem, the SmartThings App and SmartThings Cloud. The IoT platform allows users to control devices at home, at the office and on-the-go seamlessly and across multiple devices.
Guests were introduced to a variety of Bixby-powered multi-device environments demonstrating Samsung’s IoT vision for connected experiences. They witnessed how the IoT platform can seamlessly migrate a show playing on the living room TV to the bedroom TV with a simple verbal command, using Bixby and the SmartThings app, while adjusting the lights accordingly.
Bixby in Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerator is capable of providing recipe recommendations based on ingredients available in the fridge. It can also track food items for their expiry dates and suggest the user use them up before they are unusable. Bixby in Samsung washing machines makes it easy to start a load of laundry while simply talking to Bixby through the SmartTV. When done, users will receive a screen notification to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer.
Project Ambience
Next up in the Home District was the “Project Ambience,” a conceptual look at the automated living space of the future. The idea is to decentralize the traditional set-up of speaking to one specific listening device, such as your phone or a speaker. Samsung says it could be difficult for the device to pick up the commands from every corner of the room. With Project Ambience, Samsung showed how shrinking the size of the listening device can eradicate this inconvenience for good. A listening device of the size of a thumbnail will enable it to place literally on any object in the room, transforming it to the focal point for interaction.
In this era of a growing interest in IoT and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Samsung City was one of the major attractions at CES 2018. Samsung’s vision, or more of a claim, to make all its devices intelligent by the year 2020 was clearly evident at Samsung City. One could sense that its only a matter of time before connected living becomes not only the norm but a necessity for many.
