“Mom, it’s time for your diabetes medication.”
A voice from the smart speaker in the kitchen announced the medication reminder. At the same time, the water dispenser automatically filled a cup with water at a temperature suitable for taking medication (20-25 degrees celsius). This is one feature of Samsung Electronics’ AI Family Care, specifically the “parental care mode,” which will be launched in June. The parental care mode allows users to check on their elderly parents by monitoring the TV, refrigerator, water purifier, induction stove and smartphone through Samsung’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform SmartThings. Even users living apart from their parents can remotely manage these appliances to assist them.
Samsung Electronics held a press conference at its Suwon headquarters on May 14. to showcase various real-life scenarios using AI Family Care. During the demonstration, the smart speaker reminded parents to take their medication at preset times, and if the medication drawer was opened, it saved the medication record. If parents accidentally left the induction stove on when leaving the house, an alert was sent to their children’s smartphones so that they could turn it off remotely.
There is also a feature that detects unusual activity and provides notifications. For instance, if an elderly parent wakes up in the morning and drinks water or turns on their phone, the AI Family Care will notify them about their first activity of the day. An alert will be sent to the caregiver if the refrigerator or water purifier is not used within a preset time. Additionally, the camera inside the fridge allows caregivers to check its contents remotely - they can see what foods their parents enjoy and identify expired or low-stock items.
In October, Samsung plans to use cameras on its robot vacuum cleaners to provide emergency services. These vacuums will patrol the house if they detect abnormal living patterns or lack of movement from the parents. If any irregularities are detected, the system will immediately notify the children.
Samsung also introduced AI scenarios for newlyweds, households with infants and toddlers, and single-person households. “Newlyweds are the most frequent users of AI-related products at 51%, followed by households with infants and toddlers at 46% and single-person households at 34%,” Samsung said.
“Newlyweds often struggle with household chores, households with infants and toddlers are too busy taking care of their children, and single-person households are busy doing various chores all by themselves.”
While connecting and remotely controlling appliances may seem convenient, it raises concerns about security and privacy. Samsung plans to address these concerns proactively by implementing strict security policies.
“We applied Knox, a security service used in Galaxy smartphones, to TVs and home appliances, and we received the highest security-related certification from UL,” said Samsung Electronics CX-MDE center vice president Huh Taeyoung. “We aim to apply AI methods that process and recognize personal information within the device, without sending it to a central cloud server, as much as possible.”
