Samsung to launch AI-powered family care service

[Courtesy of Samsung Electronics Co.]

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. will launch a family care service, or an artificial intelligence (AI) life solution for older adults, in June 2024, the company said on Tuesday.

“We will solidify our AI leadership with a variety of smart products and solutions,” Lim Seong-taek, the company’s executive vice president in charge of sales and marketing in Korea, said during a press event at Samsung Electronics’ CX-MDE Center in Suwon, south of Seoul, adding that the “Family Care service, which helps seniors, is the first step.”

The Family Care service is an AI solution optimized for maintaining seniors’ safety and health. It connects devices such as TVs, refrigerators, smartphones, and water purifiers in the users’ parents‘ home to their family SmartThings app, allowing various aspects of daily life to be managed based on AI, Samsung said.

The Family Care service allows users to keep track of their parents’ whereabouts and check their health and safety in real time, even if they do not live together.

For example, a water purifier can adjust the water volume and temperature just in time for a parent to take their medication, or a camera in the refrigerator can check for low food supplies. Users can also check if the parent left the house with the induction still on and can turn it off remotely thanks to an alarm that is sent to the family.

“The Family Care service is the most important task among AI life solutions,” Samsung Electronics engineer Kim Hyun-jung said. “From the children’s perspective, there is a lot of pressure to take care of their parents while raising their own children.”

Users can also check their parents‘ activities via their mobile phones. Users can see their parents’ daily activities when they open the SmartThings app on their Galaxy S24, including the parents’ number of steps taken and medication records.

When the medication time they set rolls around, the speaker lights up at their parents‘ home and a voice message says, “Mom! It’s time to take your medicine.” Only after the parent hears the sound and takes the medicine out from the drawer, the medication record is saved on the users‘ mobile phones. Users are also notified if appliances in their parents’ house are not used for a long time so that they can check their safety by inspecting the house with a robot vacuum cleaner.

“We are also planning to launch a service in October 2024 that recognizes when parents fall down via our Galaxy Watch sensors and robot vacuum cleaners,” Kim said.

The Family Care service also provides optimized solutions for households with infants, newlyweds, and single-person households. Parents receive alerts when children return home safely and can even send customized messages to their children. Its Welcome Home feature also optimizes the environment to the children’s preferred temperature and humidity and plays their favorite music from the speakers.

The service can also improve the sleep environment for children. Until now, there were many complaints that the LED lights emitted by home appliances such as air conditioners and air purifiers disturb sleep, but users can completely reduce light and noise with just press of a button, Kim explained. The air conditioner and air purifier continue to operate when the LED lights are turned off but maintain a comfortable environment.

Samsung also paid attention to privacy as multiple devices are connected while generating and collecting data.

“Users can directly choose the level of alarm settings, so even the elderly can choose not to notify their families of information they don’t want to share,” Samsung Electronics Senior Vice President Huh Tae-young, who heads the CX-MDE Center, said.

Huh highlighted Samsung’s security solution, Knox, in particular. “Samsung Electronics is the first company to receive the highest ‘Diamond’ rating from global certification company UL Solutions Inc. in its Internet of Things (IoT) security assessment not only for mobile devices but also for home appliances,” he said. “We will thoroughly protect our customers’ security and privacy while continuing to pursue customer convenience.”

Samsung Electronics will introduce the Family Care service for the first time in Korea in June 2024 and plans to introduce it to the global market moving forward.

The company also plans to customize AI life scenarios for each region. In Southeast Asia, for example, where there are many single-person households, the company will offer AI security solutions, and will provide customized services with AI energy-saving solutions in places where energy conservation is a concern.