Interesting and odd appliance innovations from CES

January 8th, 2013

Appliance Talk

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is now underway in the tasteful and understated city of Las Vegas, where the latest and greatest developments in technology are put on display.

In addition to the anticipated improvements to TV picture quality and tablet computing convenience, a few examples of advanced new appliances for the kitchen, the laundry and elsewhere around the home have also appeared at the technology show, with more expected to arrive as the event goes on.

Here are just a few of the more… unusual selections:

Transparent washing machine

In many ways, a washing machine can almost be thought of as a magical box – put dirty clothes in, wait a while, and voila – they come out clean!  Even if they are soaking wet…

Rainbows and unicorns make anything magical…

So if you’ve every had a burning passion to look “behind the curtain” and find out exactly how your washing machine works – pipes, motors and all – then this concept model of transparent front loader from Haier could be for you!

The colours!

The neon lighting can even give your laundry a bit of a Tron feeling.  Or maybe a disco flashback…

Corner-cleaning robot vacuum

Samsung is a big name in phones, tablets, TVs, fridges, microwaves, and other household appliances such as vacuum cleaners.

In addition to conventional vacuums (such as this new dust-detecting bagless model), Samsung is responsible for the NaviBot range of robotic vacuum cleaners.  These little beauties are great at autonomously cleaning your household’s floors, with zero effort required from you!

However, these vacuums have their limitations.  Coming home to a robot-cleaned house may leave you with some disappointingly dusty corners where the vacuum wasn’t able to manoeuvre, thanks to their almost always circular design.

Well, Samsung’s got that covered.  Due to appear soon at CES is the Smart Tango Corner Cleaner, which adds several extendable brushes that fold out from beneath the unit when it reaches a corner to sweep the dust that the vacuum couldn’t normally reach.

One step closer to the arrival of the Smart Kitchen

For what seems like forever, the idea of an internet fridge has been the punchline of jokes about the gimmicky and superfluous intrusion of technology into our everyday lives.

However, appliance manufacturers have been working on these ideas for just as long, and with the concept of The Internet Of Things starting to edge closer to practical reality, the latest smart appliance designs at CES 2013 may be worth taking a look at.

Rather than just making a fridge that you can also use to look up recipes and check your email (if you really wanted to do this, you could just stick an iPad on the door, or use the Qooq), many different manufacturers are running with the idea of integrating “smart” connective features into appliances that actually improve the way you use them together.

LG at CES

LG has long been a champion of the web-capable smart fridge, and this year the company is understood to be bringing out more than 100 new household appliances, every one with a degree of smart functionality and connectivity.  By linking your entire household together via an app for your smartphone or tablet, control over every device in your home will be literally at your fingertips, in the palm of your hand.

Dacor is also getting in on the act, planning to release a new oven that comes with a 7-inch Android tablet that can be used to control the appliance from any room in the house.

Smart forks

Putting smart features in your fridge, washing machine or other large household appliances is one thing, but putting them into your kitchen utensils?  That’s a whole other story.

And apparently a story that HAPILABS is ready to tell.

Enter the HAPIfork – a smart fork, designed to sync up with your smartphone and give you a statistical breakdown of your dining habits, which could be useful when managing a diet or eating plan.

While it may sound a bit odd, there are already apps out there for monitoring and rating your sleeping patterns, so an intelligent fork really isn’t that much of a stretch.  Though the chunky pink design does make us think of “Baby’s First Fork”…