GE Appliances Shows Off Future Kitchen Technology At CES
The Home Grown Kitchen employs three different gardening systems for consumers to cultivate their own trees and produce in-home. It additionally comes with guides to assist the user from seeding, harvesting, and preparation of produce.
By Sarah Shadburne – Reporter, Louisville Business First
Jan 8, 2020
Louisville-based GE Appliances, a Haier Company, will reveal its reimagination of the home at CES 2020, which comes in the form of two new kitchen concepts: “Shift,” and “Home Grown.”
"At GE Appliances, our driving force is to eliminate the distance between what we make and what our consumers need, and it propels us to imagine what's to come," said Shawn Stover, vice president of SmartHome Solutions, GE Appliances, in a news release.
CES, the brainchild of the Consumer Technology Association, hosts its annual event this week as tech trailblazers from around the world make the pilgrimage to Las Vegas for a three-day showcase of their innovations.
GE’s thesis statement is one of personalized kitchen convenience for all members of the home, the release said.
As many homes become multigenerational and house people with varying physical abilities, GE said it sought to create kitchens that empower their users.
“Shift” is a technological kitchen which utilizes face and voice recognition technology to determine features applicable to its user, which include height adjustments for wheelchair users, to update the space in real-time.
The “Home Grown” offering features three different gardening systems so users can grow foods directly in their homes. The gardening system utilizes aeroponics, hydroponics, and soil to enable in-kitchen growth for trees and produce and is regulated by a user interface which guides the user from growth to harvest to food preparation.
At the conference Tuesday, GE was named Smart Appliance Company of the Year for the second year in a row through the IoT Breakthrough Awards program. The program attracted 3,700 nominations this year and seeks to recognize innovators, leaders, and visionaries in internet-of-things (IoT) categories such as industrial and enterprise, connected home and home automation and more.
“GE Appliances was the first manufacturer to offer a full suite of connected products for the home and they continue to define what’s possible, responding to consumer needs and preferences with “breakthrough” products that deliver real-world results,“ said James Johnson, managing director at IoT Breakthrough, in a news release. “GE Appliances is redefining the appliance industry by creating appliances that get smarter over time with software updates and upgrades. Making continued investments in research and development of compelling and useful smart appliance features and products, GE Appliances proves it is the leader year-after-year in the smart appliance segment. We congratulate them once again and look forward to continued leadership and innovation in the smart appliance arena.”
GE will also host Tech Talks at its booth #16006 daily through the conference from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Haier section of the booth will highlight its work to create a fully connected IoT living space, from Smart Kitchen to Smart Living Room to Smart Closet.
Locally, GE is the second largest manufacturer in Louisville, with 6,000 full-time employees and 12,500 companywide. They operate the Appliance Park at 4000 Buechel Bank Road.