Panasonic Aijia is a smart portable projector that works as a home hub connecting all home appliances as well as multiple homes, with consent. It aims to enhance family relationships in the aging society of China.
There are about 20 million families which only has one child in China. The one child policy brought many families towards the 4-2-1 structure: two adults of the working age need to support four older individuals and one child. Meanwhile, filial piety is deeply rooted in Chinese culture, which means being good to one's parents and to take care of them. For young families, the balance between taking care of seniors and their own family can be extremely difficult to manage.
Panasonic is building their home appliance eco system. Their smart home app allows users to manage all their appliances in one place. Aijia, meaning love your family in Chinese, aims to help family members of different generations to connect and understand each other, thereby enhance the family relationship. Panasonic Aijia creates a multi-home connection with personalised living experience in different homes, making individuals feel at home when they visit their families, as well as connecting family members virtually when not together.
Panasonic Aijia is a smart portable projector that works as a home hub connecting all home appliances as well as multiple homes, with consent. Firstly, it will be integrated with Panasonic's existing smart home app to create a more tailored and seamless experience at home. Secondly, Panasonic Aijia extends the smart home to multi home connection with admin mode and visitor mode. Lastly, the Ai assistant of the projector recognises multiple voices and makes users feel at home in different places. Most importanly, Panasonic will care for users privacy and secure users' data.
To build the Aijia system, we must keep the following principles in mind. First, it must be easy to use, from the initial connection to the daily interaction. Second, it should never replace human interaction, but step in during the moments of need. Third, it must be inclusive to everyone in the family, as well as the home environment.Fourth, it must secure and protect users' privacy, and only collect data for the users’ good.
When people live on their own place, Panasonic Aijia provides smart homes with virtual connection. It allows users to manage all home devices from one place as well as multiple homes, with consent. It also lets users provide distance help easily, which will be very helpful for seniors. Lastly, users can communicate with each other more often and build stronger connections between families. When family members visit each other, Panasonic Aijia’s individual home ID helps visitors feel at home in different places. By knowing other people’s living habits, it will reduce conflicts involved with living together and make family times worthwhile.
Special thanks to Enrico Bergese & Miki Megumi from Panasonic European Design Center and Chengcong Ge & Xiaoyang Lu from Panasonic Shanghai Design Center. Assistance provided by our tutor Nicholas Rebolledo is greatly appreciated. We would also like to express our appreciation to all the participants invloved in this project.
