Connects with various voice-activated speakers, including Google, Amazon, and Naver.
Learning AI can even recognize dialect accents

LG Electronics is introducing a new paradigm to the air conditioner market with its new product, the 'Whisen ThinQ Air Conditioner', which uses the artificial intelligence platform DeepThinQ, and continues to lead the home air conditioner market.

LG Electronics held a new product launch event for the '2018 LG Whisen Air Conditioner' at the LG Twin Towers in Yeouido, Seoul, with the attendance of President Song Dae-hyun of the H&A (Home Appliance & Air Solution) Business Division and Vice President Lee Gam-gyu of the Air Solution Business Division.

On this day, LG Electronics unveiled a number of new products, including the 'Whisen ThinQ Air Conditioner' equipped with its own artificial intelligence platform, DeepThinQ. This is the first time that LG Electronics has applied its artificial intelligence brand, 'ThinQ,' to its Whisen air conditioner.

LG Electronics ushered in the era of AI air conditioners last year by first incorporating AI into its air conditioners, and has applied an even more powerful 'AI Smart Care' to the stand-alone model released this year.

“The Whisen ThinQ air conditioner learns about customers’ living environments and usage patterns on its own, so the more customers use the product, the better it understands them,” said Song Dae-hyun, president of LG Electronics’ H&A business division. “Based on differentiated technologies that incorporate artificial intelligence, we will solidify our position as the number one brand in the air conditioner market.”

Whisen ThinQ Air Conditioner, an AI that listens, sees, thinks, and speaks

While the existing Whisen air conditioner's artificial intelligence learned the spaces where people mainly stay, the new product learns not only temperature, humidity, air quality, and living environment, but also the customer's air conditioner usage patterns and even the user's language.

The longer customers use their air conditioners, the more they experience the product automatically adapting to its surroundings and preferences. This is because the air conditioner listens, sees, and thinks about its surroundings to communicate with the customer. While customers previously had to learn how to use the product, now the product learns about the customer on its own.

DeepThinQ, the artificial intelligence platform installed in LG Electronics' new product, is equipped with independently developed voice recognition and natural language processing technologies, allowing the air conditioner to understand the customer's voice. DeepThinkQ operates on deep learning technology, so it learns users' language usage patterns on its own. Consequently, the more a customer uses the product, the higher its recognition rate becomes.

Users can control the air conditioner using just their voice from within 3 meters (m). Simply say "LG Whisen" to turn it on/off, adjust the temperature, wind speed and direction, and activate various functions, including dehumidification and air purification.

Additionally, the new product recognizes not only set commands but also natural user responses such as “hot” and “cold” and suggests whether to operate it first.

LG Electronics has also collected regional accent data to account for customers' dialects. This allows the air conditioner to understand customers' speech even with different accents. Also, because the air conditioner learns the customer's language usage patterns on its own, the more dialects you use, the higher the recognition rate becomes.

Customers can easily check various information such as indoor temperature, humidity, air quality, filter status, power consumption, outdoor weather, and fine dust levels using just their voice, in addition to operating the air conditioner.

Among the new product lineup, the models that support voice recognition are the LG Whisen Dual Air Conditioner Luxury product line (model names: FQ22L8DRA2, FQ22L8DSA2, FQ22L8DCA2).

AI Smart Care learns not only space but also the environment and patterns to provide customized cooling.

The biggest feature of the 2018 LG Whisen Air Conditioner is 'AI Smart Care', which significantly expands the scope of application of the artificial intelligence platform DeepThinQ.

AI SmartCare utilizes sensors mounted on indoor and outdoor units to detect not only the spaces where customers typically spend their time, but also indoor and outdoor temperature, humidity, and air quality. By learning the customer's living environment and usage patterns, the air conditioner automatically operates with appropriate settings, such as air purification and dehumidification, and provides cooling optimized for the surrounding environment and customer.

Because AI Smart Care determines the cooling load based on the surrounding environment and maintains the customer's preferred temperature, customers can always experience a comfortable indoor temperature without having to constantly adjust the air conditioner. Energy efficiency is also improved because cooling is adjusted in real time according to the situation.

According to LG Electronics' own testing results, the new product equipped with artificial intelligence smart care has a power saving effect of up to 18.7% compared to existing products.

In addition to the LG AI speaker 'ThinQ Hub', it also works with various AI speakers.

LG Electronics has also expanded connectivity, allowing customers to control its products using AI speakers. The new product works not only with LG Electronics' ThinQ Hub AI speaker, but also with AI speakers from various companies, including Google, Amazon, Naver, SKT, and KT.

Additionally, customers can use a smartphone app to check in real time how the air conditioner is cooling the room, whether it's operating at a high or low speed, depending on the surrounding environment. The HomeChat feature also allows users to conveniently control the product through messaging apps like KakaoTalk and Line.

LG Electronics' continued expansion of the connectivity of its Whisen air conditioners is based on its "open strategy" in the AI field. In addition to its proprietary DeepThinQ platform, LG Electronics leverages a variety of external AI technologies and services to provide customers with optimal AI solutions. LG Electronics plans to continue exploring the application of various AI technologies to Whisen air conditioners in the future.

LG Electronics' ability to precisely implement the DeepThinQ algorithm in its products is thanks to inverter control technology. The key to air conditioner inverter control technology is that it operates quickly until the desired temperature is reached, quickly cooling the room, and then operates slowly enough to maintain the temperature once the desired temperature is reached, thereby increasing energy efficiency.

To further refine the DeepThinQ algorithm, LG Electronics has applied "Dual Inverter Microcontrol" technology to its new products. This design incorporates optimized control algorithms for "Rapid" mode, which cools the room more quickly based on DeepThinQ's assessment of the surrounding environment, and "Comfort" mode, which enhances efficiency.

The new control technology is faster and more efficient than the existing method, which used a single algorithm to control both rapid and comfortable modes. Rapid mode cools the room more quickly, while comfortable mode operates more efficiently to maintain a stable indoor temperature.

The new product is approximately 15% more energy efficient than air conditioners equipped with standard inverter compressors, and reduces energy use by up to 63% compared to fixed-speed compressor models. In a household consuming 300 kWh of electricity per month, using the Whisen ThinQ air conditioner (model number: FQ17D8DWBN) for eight hours a day would increase the monthly electricity bill by 15,160 won. This represents a daily electricity cost savings of just 500 won.

LG Electronics has increased the number of stand-alone air conditioner models equipped with air purification functions from 10 last year to 15 this year. All of these products have also received the CAC (Certification Air Conditioner) certification from the Korea Air Cleaning Association, providing a total of six stages of air purification functions: ▲Removal of regular dust, fine dust, and ultrafine dust ▲Removal of odors and harmful gases ▲Removal of smog-causing substances such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) ▲Removal of viruses and bacteria. They remove up to 99.9% of regular dust, yellow dust, and even ultrafine dust.