CES hasn’t quite kicked off yet, but that doesn’t mean the news isn’t out there. LG is already talking up its additions to the kitchen.
We won’t be jumping on a plane to head to CES 2021 this year, not like we did last year, but that doesn’t mean the world’s biggest technology show is off-limits, nor does it mean the tech news is going to stop.
Rather, CES 2021 is all digital, and we’ll be reporting from Australia instead of Las Vegas, though some of the news is coming in a little earlier than next week’s start time.
LG is one of the reasons for that, as the company talks up some of what we can expect before the show begins, which is kind of a yearly tradition for the company. We’ve already heard about some of what can be expected in TVs, what with the QNED Mini LED TVs on the way, but next is appliances, with talk from LG on the cleaning power of UV in fridges and the cooking power of sous vide in ovens.
They’re two developments coming in LG’s InstaView range of kitchen technology, though as to whether Australians will get either remains to be seen.
The first seems like it takes a page out of LG’s Tone Free earbuds, which included an ultraviolet light to purportedly clean the tips of earphones while they were charging, with LG opting for an ultraviolet light in a refrigerator water dispenser to clean the tap before water is poured into a glass.
That’s something coming in the LG InstaView fridges, something LG says can remove up to 99.99 percent of bacteria found on the nozzle.
We’re not so sure that will make the dent LG is expecting, and it might be a fridge to come with a health warning if the ultraviolet light risks exposure to skin or eyes, something the Australian government has a few words on.
However it’s not the only feature coming to the InstaView range, with voice recognition allowing you to open the door simply by talking to the fridge as well as checking on water and ice levels by voice command, plus some changes to the cooling, with features built to minimise temperature fluctuations and cool what’s being chilled in the door more evenly.
The InstaView range also includes the ability to see what’s in the fridge door by knocking on it and having it light up, and then open that door to pull drinks out easily, but it’s not the only home appliance LG makes of the InstaView variety.
There’s also an InstaView oven coming that will light up the inside of the oven door panel with two knocks, and includes two variety of approaches to air frying: standard air frying and air sous vide.
The first basically works as a form of fan-forced air frying, as the technology typically works, while the new one is something LG calls “Air Sous Vide”, which can reportedly cook food in vacuum sealed pouches without a typical sous vide water bath, holding temperatures inside the oven to specific levels to cook with an approach like sous vide.
As to whether LG’s fan-forced take on sous vide works as well as the French vacuum-sealed water bath approach to cooking, that’s something we’re not sure of yet, or even if Australian home will be able to see the technology, but like the UV-equipped fridge, they’re just two more examples of what we can expect in the homes of the future, or at least 2021.
