AWE 2017: Using AI, big data and IoT to reshape the concept of smart homes and smart life

SHANGHAI, March 13, 2017 /PR Newswire/ -- Appliance and Electronics World Expo (AWE) 2017, a major event that forecasts the Chinese household appliances and consumer electronics industries, officially opened on Thursday, March 9, 2017 at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, featuring over 700 home appliance and consumer electronic brands across eight main exhibition halls which has total area of 1.18 million square feet. More than 220,000 professionals are projected to attend the expo, which ended on March 11, 2017.

This year's expo focuses on smart home and smart life, with major brands such as Midea, Hisense, Haier and GE Appliances showcasing their latest products ranging from traditional home appliances and consumer electronics to bathroom and kitchen appliances. These industry leading brands have established themselves by taking the integration of home appliances and technology to a higher level.

Current outlook of the smart home appliance industry

Mr. Zhu Jun, secretary general of China Household Electrical Appliances Association (CHEAA), kicked off AWE 2017 by covering the current outlook of the smart home appliance industry.

Zhu said, "The overall performance of the household appliances market in 2016 was lukewarm due to various factors such as weak global economic revival, exchange rate fluctuations and overdraft consumption. Yet, prolific innovations and active product structure adjustments of household appliance enterprises have driven a clear trend in the upgrading of home appliance consumption."

Goal of smart appliances is to enrich individuals' lives

AWE 2017 is proof that future smart appliances will place added emphasis on artificial intelligence and big data to understand the needs of users and enable daily living in future smart homes more convenient by automatically managing one's daily activities. Exhibitors will focus on demonstrating a variety of intelligent home appliances including air-conditioners, TVs and bathroom and kitchen appliances. The goal is to eventually integrate home appliances and consumer electronics seamlessly for a more efficient lifestyle.

Hisense launched Tianji 4K ultra high definition smart TV, embedded 560 dynamic subareas  to realize advanced backlight control with 4096 levels fine dimming to achieved an unprecedented 75 inch immersive visual experience. "Through a remote, users can also adjust the room lighting, temperature, according diverse living scenarios by voice command," Jianyong Hu, the GM of Hisense presented.

During Midea's demonstration of its new smart kitchen, Mr. Zachary Hu, the company's vice president, highlighted, "Going hand in hand with our smart kitchen are our consumer health appliances that focus on a few main areas including obesity, diabetes and cardiology. Users looking to reduce their weight, for example, can input data into the health tracker which will then sync with the smart kitchen. Thereafter, the smart kitchen will offer personalized food suggestions based on the data to help users achieve their weight loss goals."

CTO and vice president of Haier Group, Mr. Zhao Feng, said the overarching concept of their new Haier U-home line-up at AWE 2017 is 'Enjoy.' "Haier aims to move beyond the current method of remote control via voice recognition and mobile phones and proactively service our users. This is done by using big data and the latest artificial intelligence technology to enable our products to see, hear and understand users' needs," he elaborated. "For example, our new refrigerators are not only able to track what you put inside, but also monitor the expiration dates of your food and learn the type of brands you like to eat thanks to RFID readers and smart control readers."

Encouraging innovation with AWE's first ever Technology Park

The Technology Park allowed visitors to get a sense of the intelligent living of the future through displays of new lifestyle formats like smart traveling, smart entertainment, intelligent living, sports and health, along with live robot battles and AR/VR gaming experience.

One of the exhibitors, RoboMasters, is an annual global robotics competition that strives to make innovators out of engineering students worldwide. Produced and developed by DJI, the world's biggest drone producer well-known for its iconic drone series Phantom, RoboMasters integrates cutting edge technology, computer automation and mechanics by pitting teams of robots designed by young engineers against one another.

Freda Lu, marketing specialist at DJI, said, "The competition is a once in a lifetime experience for engineering students as it not only leverages on what they have learned in school but also tests their teamwork and mental intelligence."

According to China's National Bureau of Statistics, the total revenue for household appliances in 2016 was RMB 1.46 trillion, growing 3.78 per cent compared to 2015, while the total profit reached RMB 119.69 billion, a surge of 20.37 per cent over the same period last year.

Zhu Jun at CHEAA, said, "Despite a tepid 2016, the smart home appliances industry's operating efficiency is still on the rise and plenty of hard work has been invested in augmenting product sophistication to ensure a more convenient lifestyle for users. AWE acts as a crucial platform that brings together regional distributors and international appliance production enterprises, helping them discover more business opportunities and stay abreast of the latest industry developments."

About AWE

Organized by the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, the Appliance & Electronics World Expo (AWE) has more than 20 years of history. AWE, together with CES and IFA, are known as the three major exhibitions within the global appliance and electronics industry.