LG Electronics made their South by Southwest (SXSW) debut this year by hosting an event they called LG Inspiration Gallery. This was a gallery showcasing many LG technologies and products ranging from a home brewing beer machine to dancing A.I. robots. The focus of the exhibit was to look to the future of technology by showcasing not just available products but by placing a focus on exhibiting prototypes and concepts that will be coming to the United States in the years to come.
On the first day of the event, LG held an influencer and media breakfast which included a panel. The panel was a discussion about their focus on customer benefits and innovation for future LG technologies. The panel was moderated by Samuel Chang, Vice President and Team Lead of the New Business Center, and the speakers included T.I. Cho, Senior Vice President and Head of LG Electronics Convergence Center, Chul B. Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of LG Electronics New Business Center, and Dong-Su Kim, CEO of LG Tech. Ventures.
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It was fascinating listening to them speak about the direction LG technology is going. There were two main focuses of the talk. The first focused on changing the way customers find and consume entertainment. Whether it be by connecting the household together, smart TVs, A.I. robots, or technology that allows us to have a more enjoyable and less stressful traveling experience, improving the customer’s experience was key. The second was the affordability of their products. The panel acknowledged that their products are great, but right now they aren’t realistically obtainable for the average consumer. However, by pushing the limits of technology and innovation to be able to make their products more accessible to the public in the future.
After the panel, we had the privilege of walking through the gallery and experiencing LG’s technology. Including their A.I. robots known as LG CLOi. There were multiple versions of the LG CLOi on full display at the event (pictured below).
These LG CLOi concepts were being shown for the first time. These are A.I. robots that can recognize your emotional state and can express these emotions back to you through their animated eyes. There were also robots that danced to music, communicated with users using sign language, could be controlled by a user remotely to patrol for the security of your home, and even acted as pets or playmates for children. LG really showcased that they believe robots in the household are the future.
Beyond robots, LG was also displaying a prototype personal ice cream maker called snowwhite. This machine uses specialized capsules, much like a coffee machine, to make your own personal ice cream, frozen yogurt, gelato, and other frozen cream treats. This will have a variety of flavors to choose from, you simply pick your flavor and then treat type like standard ice cream or sorbet. Although this is just a concept, there was another personal item in full use: the home brewing machine.
The LG HomeBrew is a personal craft beer home brewing machine, that like the snowwhite, used capsules placed in the machine and you could produce your own beer without having to become a beer scientist. You choose from a selection of beer types (wheat, amber, stout, etc), let the beer ferment and carbonate for seven days.
After this, the beer is ready to be served, with no need to refrigerate since the HomeBrew keeps it chilled for you. This product is still in production and this was just for showcasing and getting audience feedback. After drinking a few of the beer selections I can say the beer came out tasting great and with it’s simplistic user friendly concept this could really change the way people go about drinking beer in the home.
There were some other innovations on display such as advanced smart lighting systems, a wall clock that displays not only the time but also provides useful information, and the world’s first rollable TV. Although most of these products were still concepts and definitely not affordable for the everyday customer, it was still fascinating to see what the future holds. The LG Inspiration Gallery really was an inspiration and I really look forward to seeing what all LG Electronics can offer in the near future.
LG Inspiration Gallery was at SXSW from March 08 – March 12, 2019.
