Report of Chapter 4

  Smart appliances represent a large potential part of the Internet of Things, the truth we should believe is that more smart appliances will be made to make our life better and easier in the future though there are so many appliances quite so dumb around us today.

  For example, our refrigerator is just a big insulated box designed to keep food cool; our dishwasher just works in a designated cycle by ourselves; our microwave oven and dryer won’t work if we didn’t tell them what to do. They always keep quiet because they are not “smart” today. But in the future, we will have so many “smart friends” who can communicate with us and do the menial works automatically by themselves for us. It’s amazing! So how will they be smart?

  At first, they will have the ability to manage themselves remotely. We can use an app on our smartphone or tablet to remotely press the start button and appliances would work automatically by following the built-in program operations. We just need tell them when to start because they are smart enough to know what to do and how to make it better, there will always be a certain and suitable temperature when we get home no matter how is the weather like outside. We can even use app to send text messages to our appliances and receive messages from them via text as well just as if they were human. It’s all attributed by the convenient mobile app and Internet connectivity.

  For second, smart appliances could monitor its environment and operation to let us know about things we need to know. Our smart washer will send a notification by app when the washing cycle is complete, and smart refrigerator will alert us by making our smartphone buzzing when someone leaves its door open. The inner sensor of smart appliances will monitor its environment and notice us it by app of our smartphone.

  In the third place, smart appliances could use their smarts to cut down on energy usage to save energy. A dishwasher could use less water by assess the account of dishes in it, and a smart refrigerator could incorporate more insulation to keep things frosty depend on a smart grid which could incorporates built-in intelligence and digital communications technology.

  Fourth, smart appliances could do the smart maintenance by themselves. The sensors of appliances could detect the operating condition and would update to a tip-top condition if it was not function properly, we can also be noticed about the issue. For example, if the filter of the smart refrigerator need to be replaced, the appliance would send us an email or a text message to let us know and replace it, the corresponding app in our smartphone would record it and assess how often we should replace the filter.

  Now that we have known about how smart appliances are smart, what can be done by smart appliances in details for us then?

  For a smart refrigerator, keeping food cool to make it fresh is the fundamental function, it could do many other dandy things for us. The door of the refrigerator will be a touchscreen display made by glass that could be opaque when we touch it so we can watch our favorite shows and look through the recipes when we are cooking. The smart refrigerator could figure out the amount of ingredients in it and work out an achievable meal plan according to our special tastes for us. And it can also assemble a list which we need to buy automatically and send it to the grocery, so we can receive the ingredients by express delivery and put it in the refrigerator for usage. Smart refrigerator could even tell us avoid trash food when we buy it as our patients said, in order to lead us to a healthy eating style.

  Though smart appliances couldn’t be made now and make our life easier and more interesting because of the barriers of technique, I believe we can enjoy the smart life by using these smart appliances in the future.