Philips Developing Talking Furniture

Posted on July 8, 2005

Philips Smart Companion Dimi Talking FurnitureT3 reports that Philips is developing talking furniture that you can communicate to and talk with. The Dimi, a prototype of Philips' Smart Companion, (pictured on right) looks like a piece of modern furniture but it can recognize you and look up information like weather reports on the Internet and read them back to you. T3 says it will be a few years before Dimi-like technology is available for home use.
Philips poses the following scenario: "Imagine a networked home, in which the Smart Companion is connected to the home PC and the Internet. A user says "Dimi, what will the weather be like tomorrow?" The Smart Companion initiates a search on the Internet for the latest information, retrieves it, processes it, and communicates it by voice to the user, all within seconds" A smidge more advanced than the average Robosapien then. Plus, the Smart Companion also recognises faces, and can nod smugly.


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