Home appliances get major high-tech upgrades at CES 2016
While drones, robots, virtual reality and HDR TVs have been dominating coverage of CES 2016, the massive consumer electronics show in Las Vegas this week, everyday home appliances are also getting some very high-tech upgrades.
Forget about High Dynamic Range televisions for a moment -- the screen of the future might be right on your refrigerator.
The smart fridge
At the consumer electronics trade show, Samsung debuted its latest refrigerator that has a 21-and-a-half-inch touchscreen on the door. You can control the refrigerator lights, stream music, and order groceries right from the screen. It also has a camera inside.
"Every single time you close the door, it takes a picture of what's in your refrigerator," Samsung's director of product marketing, Justin Reinke, said. "You can view it remotely on your phone. So, for instance, if you're at the grocery store and you wonder if you have milk, you can look on your phone and see a picture of the refrigerator as it is right now and decide if you need to buy milk or not."
Samsung's device isn't the only "smart fridge" on view at CES. To see inside LG's competing Signature refrigerator's all you have to do is knock and the door becomes translucent. To open the door, you just put your foot in front of the fridge and it opens on its own.
Whirlpool's smart refrigerator has a "party mode" that you can operate from a mobile app. When you activate it, it programs the fridge to make more ice and chill things faster.
High-tech laundry
Beyond refrigerators, LG and Startup Marathon have both developed smart two-in-one washer-dryers. LG also showed off a new home dry cleaning system called the LG Styler.
"Basically it will shake 220 times in a minute in conjunction with using a very powerful true steam generator," LG's Benay Jones explained, shaking and steaming the wrinkles out of your garments.
"We're excited to find out how more traditional manufacturers are going to find ways for appliances and for other pieces of technology in your house to talk to each other and work effectively without you," CNET Editor-in-Chief Lindsey Turrentine said.
All of this new tech makes the futuristic, cartoonish home of the "Jetsons" a little closer to being a reality.