AI-based Smart Home

An AI speaker of LG U+’s own development. (photo courtesy: LG U+)
An AI speaker of LG U+’s own development. (photo courtesy: LG U+)

 

LG U+ and Naver joined forces for the AI smart home business. LG U+ unveiled the AI Smart Home (U+ Our Home AI) Service that easily search for IPTV content or control home IoT devices at the same time with a Naver Clova-based speech recognition AI speaker in a press conference in its headquarters in Seoul on December 18. 

The core of the service is "Friend+ Speaker” with loaded with LG U+ services. Using the 'U+ Our Home AI’ Service, everyone can control multiple home devices with voices as the service interoperates with more than 40 home IoT devices such as lights, switches, plugs, air conditioners, humidifiers, air cleaners and robot cleaners. For example, if you say, “I will go to bed” to the speaker, the sleep mode is activated and the TV and lights are turned off and the humidifier begins to work.

The 'U+ Our Home AI' Service answers to sequential questions based on Naver's database (DB) and 'Clova' and offers translation services in English, Chinese and Japanese as it was loaded with Naver's translation service 'PapaGo' engine. You can also use an English conversation function through a voice command, 'Let's Talk in English.' The service also features an AI shopping function. The shopping function enables you to buy products of LG Household and Healthcare, GS Retail, and other shopping malls which formed business ties with LG U+ for prices lower than their market prices.

As LG U + has joined the AI smart home service completion as a latecomer, competition among the three telecom companies is expected to heat up in earnest. By building partnership with Naver, the company with the largest data and an AI technology leader in Korea, LG U+ has differentiated itself from its competitors using its own AI platforms. The strategy is designed to concentrate on increasing the competitiveness of LG U+’s main business such as the home IoT and IPTV through a competitive AI platform rather than expanding sales in the AI speaker market.

Naver will be able to secure a strong ally of the 'Clova' Ecosystem by partnering with LG U+ after LG Electronics. Naver previously launched a Clova-based AI speaker called “Think Hub” in concert with LG Electronics. Naver’s alliance with affiliates of the LG Group such as LG Electronics and LG U+ is expected to hold the key to the success of Naver's strategy for expansion into external ecosystems.

In particular, Naver’s service interworking with the home IoT and IPTV of LG U+ will be a catalyst for expanding the scope of the Clova Service skewed to information search. "Our alliance with LG U+ will enable Clova to expand its territory," said Han Sung-sook, CEO of Naver who attended the press conference.

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