This blog post explores how the convergence of embedded systems and AI is revolutionizing smart devices and home appliances, and how it will reshape our daily routines and industrial environments.
A mobile phone, as the term suggests, is a portable telephone. However, beyond its original purpose of making phone calls, people use mobile phones to take photos, watch TV via DMB, access internet news, and enjoy social networking services. Thus, today’s mobile phones have evolved beyond simple communication devices to become multifunctional multimedia devices. By offering diverse functions beyond mere communication, they play a vital role in our daily lives. We now live in an era where checking email or making mobile payments via a mobile phone is no longer unfamiliar to anyone.
It’s commonplace for electronic devices to come equipped with numerous additional features beyond their core functions. Even before the smartphone era, various electronic devices like PMPs (video players) and MP3 players (music players) supported many extra functions beyond their primary purpose. The number of features supported became a benchmark for a good electronic device. Furthermore, this diversity of functions provides users with richer experiences and makes modern life more convenient.
The competition for functional diversity has expanded steadily since smartphones were developed, adopting the ‘smart’ label. This expansion has extended beyond everyday and office electronics—like smart cameras that instantly post photos to social media or smart printers that use proximity communication to print images directly from mobile devices—to now encompass home appliances. This expansion goes beyond simple feature integration, driving innovation in the user experience. For instance, smart appliances go beyond mere energy savings to provide personalized services. Refrigerators analyze user consumption patterns to recommend groceries, while washing machines automatically detect laundry types to set optimal wash programs, evolving to offer enhanced convenience.
As appliances with ‘smart’ features—like refrigerators that adjust internal conditions based on contents, washing machines that regulate water, detergent, and intensity according to laundry type, and air conditioners that automatically respond to indoor temperature and humidity—are increasingly developed, the ‘smart home’ theme has become a core keyword for the current and future electronics industry. The most crucial technology for the ‘smart home’ keyword, which pursues ever more diverse functions, is the ‘embedded system’.
An embedded system refers to a computer system ‘embedded’ within a product to perform specific functions. A common example found in our surroundings is the robot vacuum cleaner. The embedded system is what enables the robot vacuum cleaner’s ‘function to detect obstacles and automatically change direction’. These systems do not merely perform functions; they continuously evolve to enhance the user experience. One significant advantage of embedded systems is that each function is designed independently, meaning it does not affect or be affected by other embedded systems performing different functions. This ensures that even when multiple functions are used simultaneously, each can operate stably. For example, if an LTE network issue occurs on a smartphone, it does not affect watching TV using DMB. While sharing similarities with applications used on PCs, an embedded system is a ‘part of the device’ that encompasses both the software commanding and controlling the function’s operation and the hardware and mechanical components necessary to execute that function.
This concept is well illustrated by the ‘auto-rotate’ feature, one of the smartphone’s signature functions. The embedded system performing this function includes software programmed to control screen rotation, along with hardware like the ‘gyroscope sensor’ that detects rotation status, angle, and direction. In other words, because hardware must be considered when designing embedded systems, software development was constrained early on by hardware factors like power consumption and cost. To reduce unit costs, designs were significantly slower and more simplified compared to personal computers (PCs), resulting in many functional shortcomings.
However, embedded systems have evolved to encompass personal, office, and industrial electronics. As hardware power consumption and manufacturing costs have significantly decreased, many hardware constraints in embedded system design have been eliminated. Furthermore, embedded systems are becoming increasingly vital across diverse industries. For instance, in the automotive sector, they play a pivotal role in implementing autonomous driving technology. Various sensors and control devices in vehicles collaborate to process data in real time, thereby assisting in safe driving. The advancement of such embedded systems provides drivers with a safer and more convenient driving experience and can further contribute to reducing traffic accidents.
To enhance productivity, efforts have focused on developing commercialized hardware and integrated design tools that most engineers can use comfortably. As a result, numerous electronic devices have been able to incorporate innovative features. Embedded systems have also become essential technologies in places beyond human control, such as satellites. However, the primary reason we should focus on embedded systems is that they are currently the most crucial element in achieving the ultimate goal of technology development: enhancing convenience.
There was once talk of a ‘ubiquitous’ era. Ubiquitous computing, symbolizing the future, promised free network access anytime, anywhere, in any situation. The advancement of embedded systems not only makes this imagined ubiquitous era a reality but also paves the way for the ‘smart home’ era, where systems autonomously manage all situations. We can look forward to the future envisioned by embedded systems.
Furthermore, the advancement of embedded systems, combined with artificial intelligence (AI), promises even greater innovation. By integrating AI and embedded systems, home appliances will evolve beyond simple automation to learn user patterns and provide personalized services. For example, a smart refrigerator could analyze a user’s eating habits to suggest health-conscious meal plans and automatically order necessary ingredients. This fusion of embedded systems and AI will make our lives smarter and deliver a new level of convenience.
Thus, embedded systems have become an indispensable technology in our daily lives and will continue to evolve, unlocking new possibilities.
