Consumers buying a range of Panasonic appliances including washing machines, rice cookers, air conditioners, washer/driers, a microwave oven, a refrigerator and a range of healthcare devices will be able to interact with the devices using either an NFC phone or a Japanese Osaifu-Keitai mobile wallet phone.
Panasonic has unveiled the Panasonic Smart App, a cloud-based service that enables customers to interact with domestic appliances via their Android NFC or Osaifu-Keitai mobile phone.
Available from late September, Panasonic Smart App will allow users of compatible home appliances to remotely operate their appliances, program settings and see the energy consumption of each appliance.
Panasonic’s 3-Star Bistro steam microwave oven and induction heating steam rice cookers, launched in June 2012, already include support for the Panasonic Smart App. Additional appliances will be added from September, including the company’s X Series room air conditioners, a refrigerator (NR-F557XV), drum-type washer-dryers (NA-VX8200/NA-VT8200), as well as healthcare products such as the EW-FA43 body composition monitor, the EW-NK63 calorie meter and EW-BW53 blood pressure monitor.
“Panasonic’s smart solutions are designed to make the user’s everyday life more comfortable, convenient and energy efficient,” says the company. “Via the Panasonic Smart App, for example, users can control their air conditioners remotely from outside the home, check if the refrigerator is running efficiently, or set their preferred washing cycle using their smartphone.
“The new app also allows owners of the Panasonic healthcare products to create graphs tracking their weight and calories consumed by everyday activities among other things, making it easier to manage daily healthcare data. Furthermore, customer support such as checking device malfunctions will also be available.”
“Because the Panasonic Smart App is a cloud service, users can download the most up-to-date information, such as recipes or device settings, from the server any time,” the company adds.
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What have remote control devices to do with NFC exactly?
NFC is used to communicate between the phone and the appliance. The air conditioners need to be hooked up via WiFi, but the other products are not directly reachable from the cloud.
So it is “phone <--> cloud <--> phone <--(NFC)--> appliance”, not “phone <--> cloud <--> appliance” as you might expect.