Significantly strengthening the smart home business based on AI, IoT, robots, etc.

Song Dae-hyun, President of LG Electronics’ Home Appliance & Air Solution (H&A) Business Division, held a press conference in Berlin, Germany on the 2nd (local time) and unveiled business strategies to lead the global home appliance market.

President Song Dae-hyun emphasized, “We will strive to create tangible customer value that smart homes can provide based on connectivity,” adding, “To this end, we will significantly expand the smart home ecosystem centered on AI appliances, IoT, and robots through continuous technology accumulation and open innovation.”

LG Electronics plans to double its annual investment by 2020 to significantly strengthen its smart home business based on AI appliances, IoT, and robots, and plans to increase its related R&D workforce by more than 50% within three years.

Starting with air conditioners in January, LG Electronics has successively launched AI home appliances that recognize voice and images to make decisions and operate autonomously. LG Electronics' AI home appliance lineup currently encompasses major home appliance sectors such as refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and robot vacuum cleaners. We plan to expand our AI product lineup to other home appliance sectors in the future.

LG Electronics is actively utilizing IoT technology in its AI home appliances, as well as its proprietary deep learning technology 'DeepThinQ™' and speech recognition, synthesis, and natural language processing technologies developed based on voice data accumulated over decades since the 1980s.

LG AI appliances analyze the user's product usage patterns and surrounding environment through various sensors, operating with automatically optimized options. By continuously learning from data recognized through 'Deep ThinQ,' the AI appliances become increasingly smarter the more the user utilizes them.

LG Electronics is expanding the reach of the smart home by continuously strengthening 'connectivity,' where home appliances, hub devices, and various connected devices are interconnected and operate organically based on IoT technology.

To this end, LG Electronics is accelerating the adoption of IoT in home appliances by equipping new products released starting this year with wireless internet. LG Electronics, which had previously applied wireless internet to premium products such as top-freezer/bottom-refrigerator models, drum washing machines, and floor-standing air conditioners, has expanded its application to built-in appliances, dryers, top-loading washing machines, and wall-mounted air conditioners starting this year.

LG Electronics is continuously expanding the range of voice recognition hub devices that integrate with LG home appliances through in-house technology development and external collaboration. Following the domestic launch of the voice recognition AI speaker 'SmartThinQ™ Hub' in April of this year, the company has expanded its connectivity services to include hub devices equipped with 'Google Assistant' such as 'Google Home' in May, and devices equipped with 'Amazon Alexa' such as 'Amazon Echo' in September.

Under its 'open platform' strategy, LG Electronics is actively integrating artificial intelligence platforms from other companies into its major home appliances, in addition to its proprietary platform. Seven types of LG home appliances, including refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, air conditioners, air purifiers, robot vacuums, and ovens, are compatible not only with LG Electronics' proprietary voice recognition AI platform but also with devices equipped with 'Google Assistant' or 'Amazon Alexa'.

In addition, LG Electronics plans to utilize the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) platform for 'Open Connectivity' to enable interoperability not only with home appliances sold by LG but also with devices from other manufacturers. The OCF is the world's largest IoT standardization organization, with over 390 member companies.

LG Electronics plans to apply the OCF platform to its AI speaker 'SmartThinQ Hub,' which excels in home appliance control, and smart refrigerators scheduled for release within the year, enabling interoperability with OCF-based devices from other manufacturers.