Samsung Electronics Co. has applied its voice-activated personal assistant Bixby debuted on the latest flagship Galaxy S8 series to its smart refrigerators and plans to apply it to other appliances later to take on global rivals Google, Amazon and Apple in the smart home market.

The Korean tech giant said on Sunday that it started to install the Bixby in its Family Hub 2.0 refrigerator last week, the first application of the digital assistant to its home appliances. It will also enable automatic update of the Bixby software in the Family Hub refrigerators that were already sold.

The company’s decision to apply the Bixby to the fridge comes amid intensifying competition to take the lead in the smart home market among its global tech rivals including Google, Amazon and Apple that have been aggressively launching a series of smart home gadgets. The Korean tech giant plans to add the Bixby to all of its consumer electronics to go head-to-head with them in the market.

The company released the Family Hub 2.0 fridge in March to drive innovation in the smart home sector. The fridge serves as a hub controlling and interacting with other smart appliances such as a washing machine, air conditioner and vacuum cleaner. Equipped with the artificial intelligence-based Bixby, the refrigerator will allow users to search for recipes and weather information, as well as listen to music and radio on voice commands. Bixby’s deep learning will enable the fridge to control temperature automatically, call up recipes based on user’s eating habits or recommend favorite music.

“The digital assistant Bixby can learn itself by analyzing user’s voice commands,” said an official from the company, adding that Family Hub 2.0 equipped with the Bixby will provide totally different services from other refrigerators.

By Kim Dong-eun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]