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Panasonic rolls out cool smart home concept

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The Movable Fridge will come when called, and return to its cubby hole in the kitchen when no longer needed
Panasonic
The Movable Fridge uses sensors to map a room and avoid obstacles as it trundles around the home
Panasonic
The Movable Fridge reacts to voice commands
Panasonic
The Movable Fridge will come when called, and return to its cubby hole in the kitchen when no longer needed
Panasonic
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There was a time when appliances in our homes would just quietly get on with their allotted tasks, but smart tech is changing that. We're now having conversations with speakers, waking up to alarm clocks that double as personal assistants and controlling white goods with an app. Panasonic is at IFA in Berlin this week showing off a potential new addition to the smart home, a fridge that wanders over to the dinner table or sofa on command to deliver chilled nibbles or drinks precisely when they're needed.

The Movable Fridge concept is a bit of a smart tech mashup. It responds to voice commands like Alexa or Cortana, and makes use of sensors to gauge its surroundings and map the room, likely using similar smarts to those found in robot vacuum cleaners. It's able to judge where it is in a room and avoid any obstacles on its way to the person who has called it from its cubby hole.

The Movable Fridge uses sensors to map a room and avoid obstacles as it trundles around the home
Panasonic

And, also like a robot vac, the whole unit looks like it's battery-powered and doubtless recharges when it returns to its docking station under the kitchen counter.

Panasonic has revealed almost nothing about the concept, but like other smart home ideas shown at trade shows, the company will be using IFA to gauge public and press interest. The video below shows the Movable Fridge concept in action, together with a smart sake cooler, at Panasonic's booth in Berlin.

Source: Panasonic

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5 comments
Buellrider
I do not think anyone will care to pony up for a fridge that moves a few feet so that you don't have to walk to get your food or beverage. Just because something can be accomplished with tech does not make it a salable idea. I certainly would never buy a fridge that does this.
SzMike
Me neither. I can understand why the comments are disabled under the video .. :)
Daishi
A lot of IoT and smart things devices are solutions in search of a problem. It's just a bunch of people blindly bolting "smarts" on to everyday objects like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Even the actors have a look on their faces that read "Are we really doing this?" 1980: "I bet we'll have flying cars in the future" 2017: "This butplug can be controlled from anywhere in the world" @internetofshit on twitter is great.
Daishi
Choose your own IoT adventure: 1) updates off so vendor can't brick critical life stuff 2) updates on and accidentally join a door botnet. "We are solving problems that don't exist, this is solutionism at it's worst" - Silicon Valley on the smart fridge episode
liui
I can totally see Dick Van Dyke tripping and falling over a moving fridge