Panasonic's home of the future will blow your mind
Kitchens are still a ways off from cooking and cleaning by themselves, but perhaps these few innovations might just make the home a little bit closer to the world of tomorrow.
The high-tech home of the Jetsons just got a little closer to reality.
Demonstrated at this year's CEATEC 2016, Panasonic unveiled a full range of IoT (Internet of Things) smart home products at its "Unique Interface/Unique Experience" exhibition. Its exhibition used existing and in-development technologies to show the kitchen of the not-too-distant future.
Shown in the above video, the shelves are kitted out with the company's transparent displays -- sliding glass panels that double as an OLED monitor -- turning ordinary shelves into full sized, high-fidelity TV displays.
The Flat Cooker, what looks to be a stylish-yet-ordinary dining room table, is a new concept cooker, where food is cooked directly on the plate by placing a specialised lid over it. Once the metal-rimmed lid makes contact with the table, ingredients within begin to heat up, while the rest of the surface remains room temperature.
Should you like to drink the occasional glass of wine and wish to keep your bottles cool, the same technology used in the transparent display shelves are also present in a wine cabinet. With a tap of the glass, it can display and modify the cabinet's internal temperature and humidity, list off the details of each bottle and provide cooking recipes for food that compliments your drink of choice.
The smart home market -- ordinary household appliances made "smart" by IoT -- is expected to double in size in the coming years. It'll grow from its 2015 worth of $46 billion to over $120 billion by 2022, according to Markets and Markets.