As proof that adding Near Field Communication (NFC) to anything makes that thing inherently more interesting, LG has announced an NFC-enabled and voice-activated air conditioner. Why? Because remember in the 80’s when companies started putting digital clocks on everything just because they could? That’s apparently what NFC is going to be for this decade. We expect to see a lot more things like this in the near future, and it just might be crazy enough to work.
LG’s latest Whisen air conditioner has an unprecedented, and arguably unnecessary, level of technology attached to it. Owners of the new machine can control it via a special smartphone app, which is something some other home automation systems are already capable of, but this new air conditioner can be controlled by tapping one’s phone on a programmed NFC tag, which is something we haven’t see before.
The system also comes equipped with its own remote, but controlling things with a smartphone trumps using a boring old remote any day of the week. If you don’t have your phone handy, and can’t find the remote, you can also just scream voice commands at the air conditioner from up to 16 feet away. You probably don’t have to scream, but if you can’t find your phone or the remote, you’ll probably be pretty frustrated. Go ahead a vent a little, we don’t think the air conditioner is programmed with emotions. Yet.
Making an air conditioner more easily controlled makes perfect sense, but for some reason LG has also equipped this model with a camera that can be monitored remotely. Probably so that users can check to make sure their homes are still cold while they’re away? What they should really equip this air conditioner with is a Predator-like thermal camera. It would also be nice if all the voice commands were Mr. Freeze’s ice-related puns from 1997’s Batman & Robin.
(via Engadget, image via LGEPR)
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