Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the sickest of them all? Thermo Mirror says you are

Use case:  You wake up after an all night bender, you don't feel so well.  But sticking a thermometer in your mouth... let's be honest, that's a huge hassle that no person should ever have to endure.  But in the analog age we sucked it up and endured that hardship.  No more, as Thermo Mirror is ridding us of that inconvenience once and for all.

Rather than sticking something in your mouth and counting to 30 (all puns aside), the Thermo Mirror let's you get a read on your body temperature simply by looking in it's rather detailed mirror.  And if you happen to have a temperature, you'll get the extra benefit of an alarm.

So go ahead and dispose of those old thermometers (greenly, because of the mercury and all).

Source: Thermo Mirror measures body temperature, gives us something else to stare at
Link: NEC / Avio

Samsung steps it up, offers connected OS on RF4289 refrigerator

I admit, I was suckered into LG's more complete line, but Thinq was a false prophet. I have seen the light, and thy name is RF4289.  Ok, not exactly the name I was expecting from the second coming, but perhaps it is a sign of our robot dominated future.  Jokes aside, the RF4289 is a serious piece of work.  It's front panel contains a UI more robust than you find on most smartphones.

You can see your twitter stream, look up recipes on Epicurious, even listen to Pandora (I'm not being sarcastic here, this actually sounds pretty useful!).  And one glaring omission: no Angry Birds, seriously guys?  The touch screen is located just above the ice dispenser, and looks a little small in the pictures, although they claim it to be 8 inches, but I'm not sure I don't prefer that over the big displays some other companies are touting.  I just worry that the touchscreen isn't going to be as responsive after you've splashed water on it a few times.  I highly suggest heading over to Engadget and checking out their gallery for more pictures of the UI in action.

I'm not sure what is running underneath, software wise.  It looks a little like Android, with it's similar icons and Google Calendar integration, but if so it's definitely a heavily modified version.  If that's the case, I can't wait to see what people hack into this thing.

Oh, and it appears to be a pretty nice sized refrigerator. Not that that matters.

Source: Samsung WiFi-enabled RF4289 fridge cools eats and tweets, we go hands-on

Control4, maker of a home automation OS, announces new device integration

Maybe it's not Windows 7 but nevertheless Control4 is doing just fine with its operating system, and has announced a gamit of new devices certified as integrating into their system.

Control4's business plan is simple.  It wants to be the glue that holds together all of the smart appliances in your home. Because let's be honest, if you're smart projector can't talk to your smart washer and dryer, then what do you really have?  I mean, what?  Exactly.

Sub-Zero is integrating its refrigerators, ovens, and wine storage units, Sony it's home theater projector, Yamaha it's AV receivers and players, and Somfy it's motorized window coverings.  See the link below for more information.

Source: New Control4 Certified Products From Leading CE Companies Enhance Today’s Digital Home

The connected kitchen is here, LG announces its Thinq line

Because you definitely want your refrigerator / microwave tweeting every time you make a hot pocket, LG is here to give it to you. Yes, the connected appliance revolution seems to be upon us (why I started this blog now and not in 1992).  And the star, at least for now, is LG with it's Thinq line of appliances.

The oven has a smart panel that will show you recipes, and it can link to your smart phone to tell you status information and give you alerts as the cycle is nearing completion (not that LG recommends being away from your oven while cooking, I'm sure).  More interesting though, is the smart refrigerator. This is the white whale, what we all have wanted since watching the Jetsons.  The smart refrigerator has an interactive display, including voice recognition (with what appears to be running Android based on the similarities with the voice recognition software although that could be coincidental).  It too links with your smart phone for something that is quite a bit more useful. Imagine being at work, ready to head home, when you check your phone and notice that your milk is almost out, not that you wouldn't already know that, you're a health nut and drink milk every morning.  But let's pretend that you're not; that information could be rather useful, could it not?

The refrigerator also let's you manage its contents through it's smart panel, so you can drag items to different spots in the refrigerator, or use voice recognition to tell it that meat is on the top.  This is all fine, but why not have a barcode scanner that you use prior to putting something in?  Checking-in items into your refrigerator is going to get old faster than checking-in on Foursquare did (I'm hearing crickets from the Foursquare community).  Check out the Mashable link for a nice video demonstration from CES. Also check out the LG link for some of their other CES offerings (that android phone looks rather nice!).

Link: LG CES
Source: LG Makes Connected Appliances Useful [VIDEO]

GE Nucleus brings home energy monitoring made easy, because it's better than home energy monitoring made difficult

Here it is folks; these are the droids you are looking for.  Or the home energy monitoring system you've been waiting for.  Or not, remains to be seen.  Let's keep the expectations in check.

Anywho, Nucleus is the code name for GE's new, yes, home energy monitoring system built on top of smart-meter, you know, that thing almost no one currently has. However, if you're one of the lucky few that does, this looks to be seriously dead simple.  Once installed Nucleus will collect and store data usage for up to three years.  So those spreadsheets you've been keeping while you monitor your toaster; throw those own.  Nucleus has you covered. Let's just hope they have an export-to-csv option.

GE showed off the technology at CES, and while I wasn't there, I did just watch this introductory video, and let's be honest, isn't that exactly the same thing?  I think so.  As the video shows, Nucleus provides some pretty rich detail on your energy usage which can be viewed from your desktop/laptop or mobile (with what appears to be an iPhone, even though the app design looks more like Android, I'm not sure which is correct).

Source: GE Home Energy Manager