Smart Appliances for Desperate Households
MIAMI (CBS4) - Imagine a kitchen where your refrigerator suggests recipes, or a vacuum that doubles as home security. What used to seem impossible many years ago could soon be installed in your own household. Experts are introducing these products as "Smart Appliances".
In fact, some appliances might even be smarter than the person using it.
Molly Gold is an organizing mastermind, and even she admits that there are times when she gets a little crazed.
"My days start at 5:45, and they generally don't end until 10:30 or 11:00 at night. I have children in high school, middle school, and elementary school," said Gold.
Molly admits that she could benefit from the newly designed "Smart Appliances." The products are designed to simplify everyday tasks, from when you decide what you want to cook, to clean up time.
Molly Wood from CNET.com introduced some of the new appliances.
"Most likely, they'll be able to save you both time and money."
A new type of refrigerator made by Samsung has an 8-inch, LCD, touch screen that allows you to use a variety of applications.
"It can actually give you your calendar, your weather report, the latest news. It can play music, and you can even leave little notes, or send a tweet," Wood explained.
How about a vacuum cleaner that remembers the blueprint of your home? LGs "Hom-Bot" (Home-Bot) cleans up the crumbs and remembers the floor plan in your house for the future.
"If you connect to it over Wi-Fi with your smart phone, you could actually see a live stream from the cameras," bragged Wood.
Whirlpool designed a washer and dryer featuring a USB port that allows you to view the stains disappear from your pots and pans, all from the screen on your home computer.
"That actually lets you connect a USB stick to it if you want to add program information." Molly Wood explained how that would work. "So, for example, you could program the washer/dryer to deal with certain kinds of stains, or certain kinds of fabrics."
"I easily do 20 loads of laundry a week, so I think that that technology is brilliant," exclaimed Gold.
There are even products that can save you a little money. The "GE Nucleus" allows you to track your energy consumption on a minute-by-minute basis by plugging it directly into the wall. It then communicates with a special smart meter to give you the readings.
"You have a little application that runs either on your computer or your smart phone, and it really helps you kind of do a little bit of an audit in terms of what you use, when you use it, things you might be able to turn off," Wood said.
But these products are not sold at a cheap price. They range in price from $150 for the GE Nucleus energy tracker, to more than $3,000 for the Samsung Refrigerator.
