At the Consumer Electronics Show 2013 kicking off in Las Vegas from January 8^th, expect more than just smartphones and tablets, for companies such as Whirlpool and LG are ready with new smart appliances that will make your household chores easy and fun. The manufacturers have separately announced their plans of smart washers, dryers and refrigerators that will talk to your smartphones and tablets via SMS texting, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and will keep you updated about their status.

The US electronics company Whirlpool will sell smart devices under its “Sixth Sense Live” brand, for example, the Bluetooth-capable CoolVoX refrigerator (picture above) that lets consumers play music through the fridge using an app. ”We’re not looking at having the fridge tweet to you, but it can send e-mails or SMS,” said Warwick Stirling, Whirlpool global director of energy and sustainability. While following your favourite domestic appliance on Twitter might have been an exciting prospect, we guess we’ll have to wait a bit more.

On the other hand, the Korean electronics giant LG is keen to unveil its line of smart appliances in CES that will let users control their washer, vacuum or range by voice command via smartphone. Some refrigerators will even offer the ability to check what kind of food is inside, remotely, and washing machines that will let you know when clothes become dry through an SMS.

While analysts are optimistic about the future that’s going to be really “smart”, they point out a few obstacles on the path to attain utopia. These smart appliances are atleast 50-100% costlier than their non-smart counterparts. For instance, a Whirlpool washer/dryer combo with smart connectivity will cost $3,600, compared to under $1,000 for entry-level models. In addition to this, there is still no common communication platform with which all kinds of home gadgets can be integrated – in order to realise that “smart home” we all aspire for. Watch out for CES 2013 starting Jan 8 as more cool gadgets await you, only @Gadgetronica.

Source: The Economic Times

Abhishek

Abhishek Mittal is an engineering student by profession and a creative writer by passion. Pursuing his B.E. in Electrical and Electronics from BITS Pilani Hyderabad, he is the Co-Editor of Gadgetronica and is deeply interested in the latest happenings of the gadget-world. Often targeted as an Apple fanboy, Abhishek closely follows the business strategies of all the tech-giants, and sometimes predict the future too!

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