Toshiba Feminity – Home Appliance Touch Panel
By Alexander Grundner |
May 2nd, 2004
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Another example of how the Japanese are ahead of the rest of the world — but in this case a bit misguided. The Toshiba Feminity (obviously gear towards women) home appliance line, consists of a clothes washer, dryer, microwave, and refrigerator that are remotely controlled via a portable Bluetooth touch panel (BHT-1002A) with voice recognition. Moreover, all appliances are Internet enabled so they all have some type of online functionality: download recipes, weather reports, email, etc.
Without being too opinionated, networked home appliances are a mystery segment with no real practical application. Seriously, how big is your house that you would need a touch panel to operate your appliances remotely? Not sure if Toshiba took into account that someone needs to load the washer and put food in the microwave before you can tell it what to do. All kidding aside, the appliances are designed to download pertinent information regarding its functionality: washer – wash cycles for certain clothes, microwave – cooking times for various food items, etc.
The real winner in this space will be networked refrigerators. Reason being, smart refrigerators will be able to track groceries being stocked or consumed. The idea is that users will be able to remotely link (via Cellphone or PDA) to an appliance for a virtual grocery shopping list while at Safeway or Albertson’s. Furthermore, refrigerators are the most central, commonly used and interacted appliance in the home. Being the case, the refrigerator lends itself to being a location for shared information (think of all the magnets, pictures, and notes posted on your fridge right now) where a door mounted touch panel can relay messages, download recipes, email, stock quotes, and more.
News Link: Gareth Edwards, “Toshiba’s networked kitchen,” Dottocomu, April 30, 2004.
Filed in: Home Controls