One thing that stood out at the recent IFA Global Press Conference in Sardinia, was that connected home appliances are definitely headed our way. We've seen such things as an Android powered oven, but Siemens looks set to connect the whole kitchen in the next couple of years.
What they had to show was a prototype of a future connected lifestyle app, which will offer the facility to control all of your household appliances from your iOS device. On the face of it, it seems such a simple idea, but it's still pretty interesting to see. Within one app, you'll be able to control your washing machine, dishwasher, coffee machine, oven, pretty much the whole kitchen.
For example, their connected refrigerator will take a photograph of the main shelves and of the door every time the door closes. The contents are then viewable from within the iOS app, and it's even smart enough to help decide upon recipes based on what's in your fridge. If you're short on something for that recipe, it'll tell you what you need to pick up from the store. When you're ready to cook, it'll help you set the oven to cook for the right amount of time at the right temperature.
It also works for diagnostics and customer care too. Video calling is built in, so should one of your appliances develop a fault, you can call through to customer care from within the app. They then access your appliance remotely, determine the fault, and if possible action it from their end.
The video above gives a quick rundown, although as this is a prototype we're not looking at seeing this come to life any time soon. Siemens told us that they expect to be shipping the connected appliances within 2 years, by which time things may get yet more advanced. The kitchen may not be the most glamorous application for mobile tech, but it's a room we all use daily. It makes perfect sense that it, too, should become part of our mobile connected lifestyles.
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Jpjj3Bx7q5Q/story01.htm
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