Nowadays, high tech that was once only a concept can now be realized. However, no matter how innovative the technology is, if it doesn’t get public support it will only be a mere invention, and it will not get into the consumer’s daily life as a product. To bring technology to life, it should be invisible and calm. ‘Calm tech’ is the compound word of ‘calm’ and ‘technology’. It refers to technology that doesn’t reveal existence, but benefits when it is needed. What is the calm tech in our daily life?
First, there are many IT companies that have introduced artificial intelligence speakers. Representative examples of such speakers include Amazon Echo, Google Home and Xiaomi Mi. These voice recognition products allow users to operate many functions of the home without using hands. Also, it can play a role as a secretary that shares today’s weather, news, schedule and questions. As the response from overseas markets have become more popular, domestic companies have launched AI speakers by implementing their own artificial intelligence services. Accordingly, KT Giga Genie, Naver Wave and Kakao Mini speakers have been launched respectively. Although there is still some inexperience in the early stage, market researcher Gartner predicts that the AI speaker market will grow from $ 720 million in 2016 to $ 3.52 billion by 2021.
Second, there is a ‘Coway air mass pad’ introduced by Coway. It adjusts user’s comfortable deep sleep and snoring through sleeping pattern. The sleeping sensor measures the user's posture, breathing, heart rate and when the snoring starts. It inflates the mattress air cell or adjusts the slope to help the people sleep. It works without a person being aware of it. Likewise, it makes suitable sleeping conditions to users without their direct control.
However, we can also discover the weakness of calm tech in our daily life. As calm tech continues to evolve, data security issues will become more important in the future with more and more users. Although the service formation of AI home appliances is varied, the security system is not perfect because it is just starting. The unconsciousness that calm tech seeks can make our life comfortable but it is also more dangerous because we can’t be aware of it. In other words, we need to consider not only the outcome of the service, but also the level of security, so that the technologies we are given are really benefiting us by improving our quality of life.
