Dreaming of a house managed by a virtual and digital assistant is easy, literature, films and TV series have accustomed us to it. But, today, wired and structured home automation is still a luxury within the reach of a few given the high costs of design and installation, in the order of several thousand euros.
For this reason, many manufacturers are launching themselves into the smart home, a system that does not use protocols like KNX, known to industry experts, but gives the user the ability to purchase many small and large accessories, connect them to a hub, a big brain that puts them in communication with each other, and start creating some automation through a simplified interface. Alexa has started to do it, but not creating automations is limiting because you are confined to the smartphone, similar to Apple with HomeKit and Samsung with SmartThings. LG had started a bit behind, but with IFA 2024 it announced the coup with the acquisition of Athom, a company that produces Homey Pro. The device, which now becomes LG ThinQ On, is an intelligent hub compatible with thousands of products and hundreds of brands, from sensors to smart devices.
LG’s purchase means that the user can connect all devices to ThinQ On, even those from competing brands, with LG-branded TVs, smart appliances or smart accessories. A much more powerful and versatile interface will also allow less experienced users to create an automation using the connected products available at home, with the “if-then-else” logic: if a sensor detects movement and the ambient brightness in the living room is low, then turn on the ambient lights and the TV to start the “cinema” mode and turn off the main lights.
All this will be topped off with a voice assistant that promises to be more empathetic, less cold. There won’t just be dry answers, but a conversational tone and, as in the case of the small AI-equipped domestic robot, also the possibility of interacting with an assistant on wheels that moves around the house, controls smart devices and can interact with the little ones creating stories starting from their drawings.
ThinQ On is not the only element of LG’s smart home: Korean appliances have been smart for some time now: washing machines, ovens, dryers… all these products have started to connect to the network to send us notifications and to be controlled from a smartphone or directly from the latest-generation TVs. With IFA, the range is being strengthened, new appliances are arriving that aim to save energy with even more efficient performance, and artificial intelligence uses sensors (in washing machines and dryers) and cameras (in the oven) to adapt the program/mode to the content, whether it’s clothing or a dish to cook.
Demonstrating then to have a 360-degree vision, LG completes the smart home with the energy management part: the control center is used to divert the energy generated by the photovoltaic on the roof towards the house, for the needs of the appliances and the air conditioning, or towards the storage battery if present. The AI uses weather data to maximize the self-consumption of what is generated with the solar panels.