David Shapshak
The death of the desktop PC has long been prophesied by the technology industry, which is always conscious of the next big thing.
First came the laptop, then the handheld computers, cellphones and gaming platforms. But the new hub of our increasingly digital homes may well be the fridge, certainly if Korea has anything to do with it.
South Korean electronics giant LG Electronics is first to market with a fully Internet-enabled fridge that can monitor its own contents, while sending and receiving e-mail, playing MP3s and showing television.
Followed by a similar fridge from its Korean competitor Samsung, LG’s DIOS Internet Refrigerator is as wondrous a product as the early PCs were. A group of South African journalists were star-struck during a demonstration, tapping the touch screen to perform otherwise everyday computer tasks as if it were the first time they had ever typed e-mail or watched TV.
Perhaps what is so amazing is the fridge being so high-tech. A fridge is meant to be “dumb”, in the electronic gadget sense; a machine that keeps food cold, not tells you when it needs more milk or stores video clips.
This “smart” fridge is one of many new network devices that will blend traditional functions with high-tech functionality for a future “wired” house that will be “intelligent”. Much of this intelligence will be pre-programmable, but it will represent a new frontier where all the electronic devices in your home will be connected and, in the fridge’s case, could be used to control other appliances.
The convergence of devices like this are far from some unimagined future. They are part of the global strategy of numerous IT companies. Enabling everyday devices with an Internet presence means they can be controlled remotely. So, if you forget to turn your washing machine on, you can go to your home’s homepage which is secure, of course, and accessible only to you and turn it on; or tell the microwave to heat up the food you left in it at a specific time.
The 2m DIOS fridge has a 38cm TFT LCD touch screen on one of its doors, which is used to access a range of computer functions: e-mail, memos (both text and video), playing music (using the MP3 format) and a diary.
Above the screen is a small digital camera that can be used for videoconferencing or to record video clips as messages that your kids can play back when they get home from school. You can also use it to take digital pictures and e-mail them to friends or family.
The fridge has its own LAN port, if you run such a network in your home, and can access the Internet.
It may seem like an unlikely choice as the digital hub, but, as LG says, why not the fridge? It is the centre of the home in many ways and has pride of place in the kitchen, one of the key rooms in any house. Put simply, says John Shaw, LG South Africa’s marketing manager, “it is the hub of the home already”.
“You can use the PC [as the hub], but normally housewives spend a lot of time in the kitchen, or near the fridge, so they can easily handle the other appliances, says Joo Wan Cho, general manager of the overseas strategic development group for LG’s digital appliance company. “And power is always on in the refrigerator.”
The fridge is perhaps a grand overture, a product with flourish to determine what the market is ready for, he says.
LG’s plan is to Internet-enable as many devices as possible and see what it is that consumers really want. Besides the fridge, LG has an Internet-enabled washing machine, a microwave and air conditioner.
“We don’t think we are going to make much money, but will test the market. Next year we are going to release a new product, a digital TV that connects to LG products and tests them, checks their status,” says Jay H Oh, the manager of corporate R&D planning group, who is responsible for working on connectivity for LG.
“Eventually there will be multiple hubs in the home. What we are trying to accomplish is that they [the enabled devices] talk to each other and manage each other.”
Although there is no global networking standard to run a home network, LG is testing the water by making devices available that will run on its protocol, known as living network control protocol or LNCP.
“In 10 or 20 years all devices will be able to communicate with each other, no matter which manufacturer made them. When the dust settles the standard will be the same, but until we get there LG is working on providing all of these devices and making sure all LG products can talk to each other in the first stages,” says Oh.
Says Cho: “By 2005 the demand for network appliances could be $3,6-trillion. We believe that that era is coming soon, that is why we are preparing for it.”
LG Electronics has organised itself into two divisions, one catering for the home network and one for the mobile network, but aims to provide a coherent solution for consumers in both spheres.
“Mobile networks are big business, so they will be able to pay for it,” says Oh of innovations in the cellular market. “But for home networks, we’re trying to figure out what will be the killer applications. The technology is already here, but what applications are the key to drive this market?”
Devising the new hub of your future digital home has not been cheap. LG says it took $15-million in research, as part of a three-year product development strategy, and involved 55 R&D staff. The fridge claimed 75 patents along the way and includes nine cutting-edge digital features. For the South African consumer, it will cost about R80 000.
But this massive investment reflects something else in global technology trends. Increasingly, as the market for desktop computing reaches saturation, it appears that the home will be the new battleground.
Gaming platforms such as Sony’s Playstation 2 and Microsoft’s Xbox not only let you play graphic-intensive, advanced games but allow you to watch DVDs too. Microsoft’s offering also has a broadband modem and a hard drive, meaning you can download movies and watch them at home.
Multichoice Africa, the parent company of satellite service DStv, in early 2003 will release the next generation satellite decoder and VCR rolled into one, known as a personal video recorder. It will include the option to watch one programme while recording another to a built-in hard drive and a range of interactivity, such as the ability to “pause” live broadcasts when you leave the room and continue watching from where you left off.
Early next year Multichoice will introduce other interactive services such as the ability to receive, read and send e-mail (using an add-on modem), shop or use an advanced TV guide. The “return path” or ability to send information back, as opposed to the one-way download path of the satellite signal will be made possible through the modem, which will be connected to the decoder.
Cellphone maker Nokia is also weighing in with its Nokia Media Terminal home entertainment terminal, which will be a set-top box of similar nature.
This is the beginning of a new technology struggle for platform supremacy and the backdrop that the Internet fridge fits into. “The home could be the market,” says Cho.
But, as Oh points out, home networks are an old idea. “Ten or 15 years ago it was called home automation, but it didn’t fly. The tech savvy say it’s going to fly this time.”
Why? “My answer is the Internet. We need to find easier ways to connect to the Internet. Probably customers themselves will work out how to [do this].”