CRI听力: U-home: Connecting People and Home Anytime and Anywhere

Have you ever imagined that some day you could operate your home appliances by remote control even if you were not in your house? Haier, one of China's largest home appliance companies, is making that dream possible at the 2010 Shanghai Expo in keeping with the Expo's theme "Better City, Better Life." Let's follow our reporter Guanny Liu to find out more.




It's about noon on a typically steamy summer day in Shanghai, but visitors at the World Expo are stopping by Haier's pavilion in the World Trade and Culture Center. They are in droves to see the U-home, a series of electric home appliances that can be operated by remote control via the internet.

The letter "U" here stands for "ubiquitous" meaning being everywhere.

Liu Jia is a Haier intern who is serving as a guide for Expo visitors. She explains how extraordinary the U-home is.

"For example, if you expect the air conditioning in your home to be on and the house to have a comfortable temperature when you get there after visiting the Expo, first you have to log onto the internet and find the specific website. Then you will see the home page, and you can choose what you would like to do such as switch on the air-conditioner. After you click on "OK," the air-conditioner in your home goes on."

Liu says Haier started promoting the U-home in 1997. The system uses a wireless network to achieve interconnection between what's known as the 3Cs-computer, consumer electronics and communication-to create an intelligent household system that shares digital media information.

Liu says remote controls for home appliances are just the beginning. People can control their home appliances not only by remote control, but also by mobile phone anytime and anywhere all over the world.

Lv Min is Haier's Marketing Manager. He says U-home is, in fact, not a new concept in many developing countries and the company is now introducing it to the Chinese market. He says the U-home system not only provides products but also offers a solution for fashionable living. Families can enjoy the comfort and convenience of accessing the internet anytime and anywhere with the Haier U-home intelligent system.

But because the U-home concept has just been introduced in China, Lv says Haier must step up its promotion here.

"Though Haier was the first to put out U-home products, some of the electric home appliances can now be seen on the Chinese market. However, we have to wait for a permit from the Chinese government which will check our U-home to ensure that our advantaged technology will truly make people's lives better and more convenient."

Technology always makes people's wonderful dreams come true. While most Expo visitors have been surprised by Haier's U-home, Liu Jia, who has been working as a company guide here for nearly two months, says she initially had some reservations about whether it would make people lazy.

"I know the original idea for the U-home is to provide people with a highly effective life. But I always had some concerns that if all these things could be done by computer in the near future, then computers would be smart enough to know when there was a lack of food in your refrigerator and could help you buy what you like at the supermarket. But wouldn't this kill the joy of doing it yourself? Later, I made my thoughts clear that the U-home system is helping us to use our time to do more useful things to make our lives better. Maybe the time we used to take to go shopping can now be used to deal with other problems. I am so glad to see this progress."

Though the U-home is still not accessible to Chinese consumers at the moment, those who stop by Haier's pavilion at the Expo also know that a more convenient future is not so far away.

For CRI, I'm Guanny Liu.