Expo highlights 'Artificial Intelligence for All'
Various artificial intelligence technologies have been showcased at the Appliance & Electronics World Expo 2024, held in Shanghai between Thursday and Sunday.
These include a ChatGPT-like model TV, AI refrigerators promoting both freshness and energy efficiency, gadgets to enhance sleep quality and warn of diseases, and robots capable of everything from playing chess to cleaning floors.
With booming chip and AI model development, all home appliance devices are worthy of being "reshaped" with AI, industry giants Hisense and Samsung have said.
AWE, Asia's biggest home appliance show, is held annually in Shanghai. This year it took up 14 halls with a record-high exhibition space of 160,000 square meters.
It is the first AWE with AI technology being more than just words.
Visitors examine the new AI TVs in Hisense's booth.
Hisense: AI model to reshape the whole TV industry
At AWE 2024, Hisense has showcased a Chinese-language AI model, the first of its kind in the TV industry.
It features text-to-image, text-to-video and an AI assistant to help users easily find the content they want to watch.
In its new ULED X TVs, AI is also used to improve image quality and automatically fit angles.
The rapid development of AI technology is bringing unprecedented opportunities for the TV industry.
"All the experience of the big screen is worth using AI to reshape," said Li Wei, president of Hisense Visual Technology.
Hisense has become the world's No. 2 TV maker with about 26 million units of annual sales, behind Samsung.
Its overseas income jumped 13 percent in 2023 and will accelerate growth in markets like Japan and Europe this year, fueled by core technologies like AI, 8K and laser TV.
The latest roll-able laser TV model, which can be folded away with separate flat screen, also debuted at AWE.
Hisense' latest 110 inch laser TV model with 8K resolution display also has a built-in-screen sound, which caters to home theater lovers along with eye-protection and energy saving features.
The new design can more easily fit into Chinese households and can be moved around from different rooms and living spaces to suit different decoration styles.
Samsung's AI for All.
Samsung: AI for All
In the AWE booth, a giant display "wall" shows the South Korea-based giant's ambition for AI. Samsung features AI powered devices from smartphone, TV, refrigerator and washing machines, which can be wireless connected and controlled.
The new Samsung washing machine is equipped with AI "Bubble Clean" technology which chooses the most suitable water and cleaning liquid ratio. The new AI Smart Dry feature analyzes the moisture content of the load to optimize the drying cycle.
Samsung's AI refrigerators ensure both freshness and energy efficiency, while Samsung 8K TV uses its own AI chip to optimize image quality and offers users vivid color and viewing experiences.
Yunmi aims to adapt AI for elderly care and sleep quality improvement.
Yunmi: AI for aged people
Yunmi, a smart home system provider, launched AI home appliances for health and disease detection in the booming aged group market in China.
These include "smart beds" to detect and improve sleep quality, and air conditioners that automatically adjust to environments and specific requirements.
The spotlight is the AI heart monitoring radar Alpha X. It features ultra-wideband frequency scanning, while combining the AI deep learning algorithm, which can capture real-time heart/thorax micro-movement frequency remotely.
It supports real-time monitoring of critical bedridden, whole-house monitoring of the elderly living alone, daily monitoring of the elderly in rooms next door, and accommodation monitoring for traveling, as well as daily monitoring of cardiovascular disease.
Meanwhile, it can prevent infants and young children from covering their noses in their beds.
Yunmi believes in AI technology adoption for senior care, an industry with public welfare as well as business opportunities, said Chen Xiaoping, Yunmi's chief executive.
A cleaning robot upgraded with AI to detect furniture, humans and pets.
Robots: cleaning floors to playing chess
In hall E1, various cleaning robots include brands such as Ecovacs, Tineco and Dreame.
It's noteworthy that the domestic brands are growing rapidly globally. In the fourth quarter, Dreame took the leading position in European countries like Germany and Italy, according to researcher GFK.
Meanwhile, startup brand Tineco has been in the US market with footprints in Amazon and Walmart.
AI firm SenseTime displayed consumer-oriented gadgets in AWE, including a go robot bringing AlaphGo versus human player experiences to families.
An AI-powered lamp for students also made its debut at AWE. It can "focus light" on books automatically, and verbally alert a student to poor posture.
A visitor pits himself against SenseTime's chess robot.
