LG has detailed a future where you’ll be able to download a recipe on your smartphone and then send it to one of the company’s microwave ovens to set the cooking instructions.
“A simple user scenario is that you have a smartphone, download a recipe and instantly the microwave oven recognises the temperature and cooking time and all you have to do is put in your food and press start”, explains James Choi, marketing strategy and planning team director at LG Electronics global, to Pocket-lint in a one-to-one interview.
“In terms of connectivity, LG is in a very good position. It’s not just TVs, but the entire home environment, including home appliances that will be connected in the near future”.
LG, unlike Panasonic who released the Viera Tablet at the show, not only makes televisions, smartphones, and now tablets, but washing machines, vacuum cleaners, ovens, microwaves, and fridges. Its connected fridge with Internet connectivity has been around for almost 10 years.
“At LG electronics we always endeavour to not only have the connectivity between our phones and TVs but our microwave ovens and other devices in the home”.
It’s a concept that a number of manufacturers were showing at this year’s CES at the start of January, with Panasonic and Technicolor showing tablets as companion devices to the TV.
“In terms of connectivity towards the TV, we have Wi-Fi direct and DLNA. Those technologies allow us to share content from the phone to the TV, but that is a baby step to connecting to your TV in the future”.
Pie-in-the-sky thinking or something that we'll see before the year is out? Choi says it’s all happening now:
“We tend not to reveal products that will be launched beyond June at CES, so in that sense it's in the very near future”, he confirmed getting us all excited at the thought of an intelligent microwave before Christmas.
The caveat of course is that this does involve an entire eco-system of connected devices for it to work, and that means not only the possibility that you’ll have to upgrade your phone, but all your kitchen gadgets too.
If you can’t cook, it might be time to start saving.