Forget smart locks. LG just made the door of the future
With the easy delivery of Amazon, entryways are becoming more central to our home experience. LG wants to tap into that evolution.
A massive tent covers LG's "booth" -- if you can even call the thousands-of-square-feet space a booth -- and few are allowed in yet. CES , the world's largest consumer tech expo, hasn't opened to the public quite yet. But inside LG's tent, where some members of the press and small flocks of PR people buzz between the dozen or so displays, including robots and a wall of TVs , something unexpected has caught my attention: a door.
Of course, it's not an ordinary door. It's futuristic. It's also a little shiny for my taste, not something that would be at home on the front of my little house in the midwest. But I'm drawn to it nonetheless, because it actually offers answers to a ton of the problems I run into almost every week.
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The door itself opens after scanning your face and palm for identity, but to the side, it also includes in-built delivery receptacles -- one for packages and one for perishables. For anyone who's used meal delivery services only to arrive home hours later than expected, a little fridge like this could seriously cut down on the stress of leaving raw pork on your front stoop.
What's more, the compartments easily open up inside the door, so you could just grab a delivery without venturing outside -- whether to avoid cold or just avoid putting on clothes. It's these moments when you realize that, while retrofit devices like August Smart Locks and package drop-off containers are probably more practical, homes really could be so much more efficient.
On the inside of the door, a mirrored display shows all the info you'd want on your way in or out: traffic and weather updates, grocery receipts and more. I'm not crazy about the "put-a-screen-on-it" approach to a lot of smart home tech, so I didn't think much of the interior door at first -- but then I realized how useful a full-size mirror on the inside of my front door would be. I've gone out with bedhead more times than I'd like to admit, and a little reminder to smooth down stray hairs, zip up my fly or clean the crumbs off my shirt will always be welcome.
Sadly, it'll probably be decades before devices like this find their way into most of our homes. But when we're ready to venture into the future of smart home tech, this door will be waiting.
