I.P. Park, president and CTO of LG Electronics, recently explained how open innovation has been the underlying principle of the company’s latest technological breakthroughs. In the “Future Talk” during the last CES edition, Park talked about the growing power of partnership across disciplines and industries. The LG Innovation Council is a prime example of LG’s many collaborative initiatives, bringing together a group of experts from a broad range of tech sector companies to learn, cooperate, discover new opportunities and find new ways to improve people’s lives. This open approach to innovation provides the basis for everything that LG is working towards, especially under its LG ThinQ brand, which encompasses the company’s AI and IoT-enabled devices. Park outlined plans to develop an ecosystem by connecting all products and services across categories. “It’s not just about individual appliances and devices that have AI capacity and connectivity, it’s more about building an ecosystem where LG and partners work together to expand, enhance and enrich what we offer to those we serve”, said Park. Joined by David Rabie, CEO of Tovala, whose oven-ready meal kits will soon be available for purchase in the LG ThinQ Store, Park envisioned an evolved ThinQ app that goes beyond control and monitoring functionality to become a full digital lifestyle platform. Through diverse partnerships and by implementing new features such as Scan-to-Cook, which lets users instantly apply the right oven settings for select pre-prepared meals by simply scanning the packaging’s barcode, LG makes home management effortless. Besides, Park was joined by Jean-François Gagné, CEO of Element AI: the two companies along with other partners are developing a new innovative platform, AIX Exchange, that will enable industry leaders, researchers, policymakers and consumers to engage directly with one another to discuss how to best implement AI for the good of all. Park also revealed some of the intelligent technologies LG has been working on, including Vision Pack, which will augment the existing AI capabilities of the company’s ThinQ refrigerators and smart mirrors.
Another key point of the talk centered on LG’s vision for creating a consistent and connected user experience that extends to all areas of consumers’ lives. Together with Dmitry Loschinin, executive vice president of DXC Technology and president and CEO of Luxoft, Park unveiled LG and DXC Luxoft’s new joint venture named Alluto, which will reimagine the in-vehicle experience, leveraging LG’s webOS Auto to seamlessly connect car to home and office. As an illustration of the potential of webOS, Park presented a new smart cabin concept that will offer immersive interactive experiences for passengers as well as the possibility of a cloud-based mobility ecosystem suitable for a variety of commercial and public applications, including intelligent fleet management in tomorrow’s smart cities.
