NXP shows off RFID- and NFC-enabled smart washing machine
NXP Semiconductor demonstrated an RFID- and NFC-enabled smart washing machine at the Embedded World exhibition in Nuremberg, Germany.
The washing machine can detect what is placed in the laundry and reads information about the fabric type and color from RFID-tagged buttons. This also helps to avoid mixing white and dark laundry, and optimizes the washing program based on characteristics it reads from both the clothing and the detergent itself.
“Major home appliances are becoming ‘smarter’ by the day – yet we’ve only started to explore the universe of possibilities when it comes to two-way communication,” said Jan Willem Vogel, senior director, industrial applications marketing, NXP Semiconductors.
Using an NFC-enabled phone, an authorized maintenance technician can also perform diagnostics on the smart washing machine onsite, change its status, upgrades firmware and launch an app that communicates directly with the manufacturer’s service center using the phone’s built-in data.