Samsung Studying Appliances of Future

People who work at the future technology research team of Samsung Electronics Research Institute of Home Appliances are always busy thinking about what life will be like in 2020.

Samsung Electronics set up this team to conduct research on home appliances that will be used in the future. This team is composed of people who majored in mechanical engineering, architecture, environment, and consumer psychology.

What is life going to be like in the future? This paper visited this research team and wrote a scenario about how our lives will change in the future.

Silent Cleaning Robot Takes Care of the Mess-

Seoul, 2020.

Lee Mi rae, 33, arrives at home and goes to her dress room. She had dinner with her co-workers and now her pink silk blouse smells like pork. She takes her blouse off, hangs it on the closet and pushes the button marked “air wash.” Hot air comes out of everywhere and washes the smell and dust off of her blouse.

In 2020, the washing machine and the closet will be combined together. The “silver nano air wash washing machine,” which was introduced in 2006, has changed into a kind of built-in furniture. Now, she turns on the “good night system” in her bedroom. The room becomes cool. The sound of flowing water comes out of the speaker and a forest full of trees and flowers appears on the TV monitor. Lee falls asleep. While she is sleeping, a cleaning robot cleans up the house, making sound of 20dB, which cannot be detected by human ears.

Refrigerator Monitor Shows the Expiration Dates of Goods

While Lee is at work, her father-in-law, who is 80 years old, takes care of trivial house chores such as dishwashing. The user had to bend down to put dishes in the dishwasher in the past. Now, the dishwasher stands at the eye-level of Lee’s father-in-law. Dishwashers, which were first introduced in 1990 in Korea, were used by a mere 10 percent until 2006. In 2020, the device is now used by 90 percent of households.

Also, “nude sales,” which were introduced to Korea in 2006, have now become very popular. The construction company provides consumers with a framework and facilities and the consumers are allowed to choose finishing materials for their houses according to their tastes.

Potatoes, watermelons, kimchi, and other stuff are kept in drawer-type storage. Also, an RFID, an electronic tag, is attached to daily products such as milk and eggs. Users can be sure when the expiration date is by looking at the refrigerator monitor.

People Who Make Future Life Better-

Lee Chang-hee, a graduate of KAIST and a researcher of this team, says, “The convergence of electronic devices and furniture will accelerate in the near future.”

This team studies the reports about famous foreign furniture fairs and IT trend reports. Also, studying women consumers has become very important because of the emerging women power.

Choi Do-chul, chief of the Research Institute of Home Appliances, says, “If our products satisfy the picky Korean consumers, then it is highly possible that those products will be a success in foreign markets. In the near future, we will introduce a washing machine that is capable of dry cleaning.”

Sun-Mi Kim kimsunmi@donga.com