CES 2014: Panasonic Launches Smarter than Smart 4K TVs with Voice Recognition

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Image: Panasonic

Panasonic unveiled their VIERA line up of LED and LCD TVs running the intuitive Life+ Screen platform at the CES today. The smarter than Smart TV series includes radical new advancements in the way we view and interact with our TV sets.

The Panasonic press release reported Julie Bauer, President, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company as saying: “Technology has brought us access to a seemingly endless list of content options directly through your TV and it is getting harder to find what to watch. So we decided it was time to redefine what a 21^st century TV should be by taking into account how people live their lives today, and how that will change in the future. The result is our new 2014 Panasonic VIERA Life+Screens.”

Ultra-HD resolution

Most TVs in the series are full HD, but 2 from the series are 4K Ultra HD LED TVs – which means they have a resolution 4 times that of a full HD TV – and will come in sizes 65-inch (available) and 85-inch (to his markets in the months to come), incorporated with face and voice recognition.

Voice navigation

The voice command feature searches content on the TV or controls its functions following a voice command. The voice guidance feature verbalizes the text on the screen or asks for recommendations.

Super-personalized viewing

The MyStream feature makes personalized content recommendations to a user based on data gathered from his/her viewing history which the user had saved earlier by clicking the ‘Like’ button on the TV remote. Custom settings on these TVs allow for 5 people from a family to create and store personal preferences. The press release says:

“Rather than relying solely on cumulative viewing patterns to generate recommendations, Panasonic’s new Life+Screens are able to recognize each user individually and build up a personalized profile of their favorite content thanks to the My Button on the remote control. Pressing the My Button alerts the Life+Screen that you like the kind of content you are currently viewing, and uses the program metadata together with advanced algorithms to present more appropriate recommendations.”

Cloud and social sharing

In case the users are away from their living rooms, My Home Cloud allows them to remotely share content between their TV, smartphones and PCs. So the user can access data from their office PCs an import them into their TV and vice versa. These TVs also come with social sharing functions; the Swipe & Share 2.0 gives Android or iOS users a means to share photos and videos from their devices to VIERA HDTVs.

The Panasonic 65″ Class 4K Ultra HD TV can be bought from the company website for $5,999.