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Smart Furniture targets kitchens and bathrooms

Published: 11 Nov. 2014, 04:14

A smart screen on the door of a kitchen cabinet allows cooks to check weather and news, listen to music and watch videos. Provided by SK Telecom

Now we can make calls by touching a smartphone screen that appears on a bathroom vanity mirror. We can also watch a video on how to cook a meal from a screen on a kitchen cabinet. Think it’s a scene from the latest sci-fi movie? Such technologies are available now, thanks to Smart Furniture.

SK Telecom, the No. 1 mobile carrier in Korea, said yesterday it is introducing Smart Furniture in cooperation with Hyundai LivArt Furniture, the manufacturer and exporter of furniture within Hyundai Department Store Group.

Smart Furniture provides smartphone mirroring services in line with a variety of information services using wired and wireless Internet networks through a touchscreen installed on vanity mirrors or the doors of kitchen cabinets.

Smartphone mirroring refers to displaying the screens of smartphones and tablet PCs on televisions and other large screens.

The companies have jointly engaged in research and development since January, with SK Telecom producing a platform and Hyundai LivArt designing the furniture.

Besides synchronizing with smart gadgets, Smart Furniture also independently provides media services including radio broadcasts and household and living services such recipes, food preparation techniques and timers.

It also offers a family board and a photo album.

The service can even be used as part of the Smart Home service when connected to a home network, which would allow users to remotely open and close doors and control the home’s temperature, according to SKT.

Hyundai LivArt will start accepting orders from local and foreign construction companies next month.

It plans to launch additional Smart Furniture products in February and achieve 50 billion won ($46 million) in revenue by 2017.

“Smart Furniture is an innovative product that combined Hyundai LivArt’s 37 years of know-how in furniture development and production with SK Telecom’s ICT technology,” said Kim Hwa-eung, CEO of Hyundai LivArt Furniture.

Meanwhile, SK Telecom plans to enhance its competitiveness by expanding services to satisfy its customers through the convergence of mobile, Internet of Things and cloud technologies.

To this end, SKT said it will create and expand strategic partnerships with professional enterprises within various industries.

BY KIM JUNG-YOON [[email protected]]