CES is right around the corner, and that means it"s time for companies to start making a wide range of announcements. Ahead of the show, Samsung has announced a new edition of the Family Hub that powers its smart refrigerator lineup that debuted in 2016.
The new Family Hub comes with a handful of improvements, starting with AI features for meal planning. The fridge can recommend "Smart Recipes" based on your food preferences, come up with a meal plan for the entire week based on the ingredients in your fridge, and even create shopping lists based on what"s missing. To help with this, the cameras inside the Family Hub have been upgraded with new AI-powered image recognition, scanning and identifying what"s inside. It will keep users up to date as items are added or taken from the fridge.
Like before, the Family Hub has a large display on the door, and the Family Board feature lets families share music and images through the large screen. With this new version, the Family Board now supports video clips, too. The SmartView feature has also been updated to support vertical video, which is common in smartphones thanks to apps like Snapchat and Instagram.
Finally, the Family Hub now lets users control their smart home devices from the kitchen. It supports over one thousand products compatible with Samsung"s SmartThings, though that"s not a particularly large ecosystem. Nonetheless, if you use compatible devices, this should make your smart home a little more convenient. There"s also a new SmartThings Video widget, so you can see your security cameras from the fridge as well.
The new Family Hub software improvements will be available in the spring.