Advances in embedded systems are ushering in the era of the smart home, transforming our everyday lives. Combined with AI, this technology will herald new innovations, such as personalized services, and will enable a smarter future.
A cell phone is exactly what it sounds like: a phone you can carry around. But beyond its primary purpose of making phone calls, people use cell phones to take pictures, watch TV with DMB, get news online, and enjoy social media. As such, today’s cell phones have become more than just a communication device, but a multifunctional, multimedia device. They play an important role in our daily lives by providing a variety of functions beyond just communication. It’s no longer uncommon to check email or make mobile payments from your phone.
We’re used to seeing electronic devices with tons of extra features on top of their original functionality. Even before the advent of the smartphone era, many electronic devices, such as PMPs for playing videos and MP3 players for listening to music, supported many additional functions beyond their original purpose. The number of functions supported has become a measure of a good electronic device, and this diversity of functions has provided users with a richer experience and made modern life more convenient.
Since the development of smartphones, the race for feature diversity has expanded to include everyday and office electronics, such as smart cameras that can instantly post photos to social media, smart printers that use proximity communication to print photos directly from within the mobile device, and now home appliances. This expansion goes beyond simple functional integration to revolutionize the user experience. For example, smart appliances don’t just save electricity, they also provide personalized services. Refrigerators, for example, are evolving to better serve users by analyzing their consumption patterns and recommending groceries to buy, or washing machines that automatically recognize the type of laundry and set the optimal wash program.
As more and more home appliances with ‘smart’ functions are developed, such as refrigerators that adjust their internal environment according to the contents, washing machines that adjust water, detergent, and strength to the type of laundry, and air conditioners that automatically respond to the temperature and humidity in the home, the topic of ‘smart home’ has become a keyword in the current and future electronics industry. One of the most important technologies in the pursuit of more diverse functions is embedded systems.
An embedded system is a computer system that is ’embedded’ within a product to perform a specific function. A common example is a robot vacuum cleaner. It is the embedded system that enables the robot vacuum cleaner to “detect obstacles and automatically change direction”. These systems don’t just fulfill a function, they are constantly evolving to improve the user experience. One of the key advantages of embedded systems is that each function is designed to be independent, meaning it doesn’t interact with other embedded systems that perform other functions. This means that each function can operate reliably, even when multiple functions are used simultaneously. For example, if the LTE network fails on your smartphone, it won’t affect your ability to watch TV with DMB. Although similar to applications on a PC, an embedded system is a “part of the device” that includes both the software that commands and controls the behavior of the function and the hardware and mechanical parts needed to make the function work.
This concept is exemplified by one of the most iconic features of smartphones: the ability to automatically rotate the screen. The embedded system that performs this function includes software programmed to control the screen rotation, as well as a gyroscope sensor, which is hardware that detects the angle and direction of the rotation. Because the hardware must be considered when designing an embedded system, in the early days of development, software development was limited to match the power consumption and cost of the hardware, and in order to reduce unit costs, much slower and simplified designs were used compared to personal computers (PCs), resulting in functional deficiencies.
However, embedded systems have evolved to encompass personal, office, and industrial electronics, and the power consumption and manufacturing costs of hardware have been greatly reduced, removing hardware as a barrier to designing embedded systems. Embedded systems are also becoming increasingly important in a variety of industries. For example, in the automotive industry, embedded systems are playing a key role in enabling autonomous driving technology. The various sensors and controls in a car work together to process data in real time, which is then used to help the car drive safely. These advancements in embedded systems provide drivers with a safer and more convenient driving experience, which can help reduce traffic accidents.
To improve productivity, efforts have been made to develop commoditized hardware and integrated design tools that most engineers are comfortable using, resulting in a large number of electronic devices with innovative features. Embedded systems have also become a key technology in places where human control is not possible, such as satellites. But the reason we should be paying attention to embedded systems above all else is that they are currently at the center of the ultimate purpose of human technology development: to promote convenience.
There was once a popular phrase called the “ubiquitous” era. Ubiquitous was a word that symbolized the future, with free access to networks anytime, anywhere, and under any circumstances. Advances in embedded systems not only make this imagined ubiquitous era a reality, but also the era of the smart home, where everything is under control. We can look forward to the future that embedded systems will bring.
Furthermore, the advancement of embedded systems is foreshadowing an even greater revolution by combining them with artificial intelligence (AI). With the integration of AI and embedded systems, home appliances will move beyond simple automation to learning user patterns and providing personalized services. For example, smart refrigerators will be able to analyze your eating habits, suggest healthy meals, and automatically order the ingredients you need. This combination of embedded systems and AI will make our lives smarter and provide a new level of convenience.
As you can see, embedded systems have become an integral part of our daily lives and will continue to evolve and open up new possibilities.
