July/August 2018
ertonline.co.uk
Sonos Play
Speak for yourself Whether AI is merely a marketing concept or something more era-defi ning, it’s certainly a valuable a conversation-starter. “If a home appliance utilises AI, then it’s likely to be the leading feature referenced when talking to a consumer,” says Mr Macdonald, who recommends that retailers give live demonstrations with a working wi-fi connection. However, he also warns not to lose focus on other aspects of the machine that the consumer may actually be more interested in, such as aesthetics, or energy usage.
“Retailers should create dedicated voice personal assistant areas, in which they highlight a range of voice-enabled loudspeakers, light bulbs, headphones, cameras and thermostats,” says Jurjen Amsterdam, senior category manager of Home Systems at Harman EMEA.
Today we have ‘command and control’ functions, but we don’t yet have true meaningful conversations with smart devices
Simon Forrest, director of consumer electronics, Imagination Technologies
while LG is adding Google Assistant to the webOS platform on its LG OLED TVs and LG Super UHD TVs as part of its ThinQ AI range.
The latter’s TVs will enable the user to ‘change to cinema mode’, ‘search for the soundtrack of this movie’ or ‘turn off the TV when this programme is over’ by speaking to the TV, but also by speaking to the Google Home smart speaker, or any other smart speaker compatible with Google Assistant. Expect mid-range TVs to include voice assistants in 2019, and for it to be a standard feature of all TVs by 2020. The AI TV is also not just about voice. Samsung claims that its fl agship 85in Q9S TV uses AI to convert low-resolution videos into 8K. That’s effectively relabelling an upscaling algorithm as a form of AI to catch the wave of interest in AI.
Kitchen talk Voice-assist functionality is increasingly being incorporated into kitchen appliances, too. “A smart washing machine can suggest the best way to remove red wine stains from a favourite top,” says Steve Macdonald, marketing director of freestanding at Hoover Candy UK, which is about to launch its Hoover AXI washing machines that can be voice-operated by voice and will even be able to offer stain removal advice. “Market trends suggest that consumers are ready to embrace AI in the home, so it’ll be interesting to see the extent of the uptake in voice-assisted white goods and cooking appliances.”
“Only by doing so will potential customers understand how these voice-enabled products can improve their life, and which use-case best fi ts their personal situation.”
Do consumers know enough about the smart home, let alone about AI? Probably not, but they soon will, with some thinking that the manufacturers will do most of the heavy lifting.
“Most of the education will be done by the two major voice services from Google and Amazon, specifi cally through advertising,” says Mr Amsterdam. “Brands like JBL and Harman Kardon will team up with both of them, and other major parties in the voice/AI area, to explain key use-cases.” A lot of that is being done on TV, but digital marketing and p-o-s displays in-store are also playing a key role. Products that promise AI are merely dipping a toe into a vast subject that future products are very likely to massively expand on – so don’t exaggerate about these early products’ AI capabilities. Voice platforms are not a magic bullet for a hands-free home, and promising otherwise will only cause problems. “With usage drop-off levels very high – and perhaps people returning items straight after buying them – the industry needs to be sure they are not overselling a product, but instead being realistic about what a product can help and what it can’t,” says Smart Design’s Mr Merrill. Nor should retailers suggest that everything will soon come with AI, because it likely won’t. “It makes sense for devices such as TVs and music players where voice control simplifi es interaction, enabling the user to quickly navigate a vast library of content,” says Imagination’s Mr Forrest. “But you
Samsung QLED TV with Bixby
won’t want every device in the home to be voice- enabled.” Toasters, kettles and anything that requires require manual interaction are good examples. To audiophiles, home-cinema afi cionados and other early adopters, the likes of the Echo is a pure novelty, but not for long. Serious hi-fi products that embrace voice control are beginning to appear. Polk Audio recently unveiled its Command Bar with Alexa built-in, while Echo devices will soon be able to control Sonos speakers. Futuresource thinks that AI will soon colonise headphones, wearable devices, wi-fi routers and set-top boxes.
Look, no hands A product doing what it’s told is only one early aspect of AI. In the coming years, expect AI to become a lot more impressive, as products begin to take the initiative with no input from humans. “Future
AI products will most likely ‘see’
compatible products on the customer’s home network at installation, allowing these products to copy wi-fi settings and install themselves without input from the consumer,” says Mr Amsterdam. This is when the smart home will come into its own, moving beyond smart speakers to systems that understand, learn, predict, adapt and operate autonomously.
By 2027, voice assistants will be much more pervasive in smart homes, interacting with sensors, cameras, control points and devices to automate lots of daily tasks, according to Futuresource. “True AI uses experience and reasoning, whereas voice agents and smart-home products are replicating the impression of AI through connection with cloud-based computer engines,” says Imagination’s Mr Forrest. “Today we have ‘command and control’ functions, but we don’t yet have true meaningful conversations with smart devices.” So the next step is AI products that are much
more than just hands-free, closing windows and locking the house when the owners leave, or using multiple sensors around the home to intelligently manage energy usage.
A little more conversation It now seems certain that AI will become part of the conversation when selling all kinds of consumer electronics, but independent retailers would do well to see the AI era in a long-term context. “We’re still in the ‘iFart’ stage of the technology and I think we still need to fi nd where this technology fi ts into a consumer’s life and technological ecosystem before we will see full adoption,” says Smart Design’s Mr Merrill. “It’s more likely that smart homes will evolve
around some form of master control,” says Mr Forrest at Imagination.
“One system that collates input from various sensors and microphones, harnessing AI in specifi c CE products alongside cloud processing, then managing interactions across devices in a truly smart fashion.” That’s why there’s a big focus on AI and voice assistants. It’s thought that whoever controls the user interface of these early AI products will infl uence smart home development for decades to come.
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