三星的Bespoke更新是迈向冰箱实用人工智能的重要一步

内容总结:
三星Bespoke冰箱迎来重大AI升级:食材识别数量激增至2000种,还能远程诊断故障
本周,三星为其Bespoke系列冰箱推送了一次引人注目的软件更新。尽管给冰箱装软件听起来有些另类,但这次升级确实在让冰箱的人工智能变得更加实用。
过去,三星冰箱已具备自动识别食材和规划菜单等AI功能,但识别范围仅限约60种生鲜和50种包装食品,且需要用户手动输入数量或添加日期,操作繁琐。此次更新后,冰箱接入了谷歌Gemini大模型,将可识别食材种类从100余种一举提升至2000种以上。虽然需要连接Wi-Fi,但响应速度很快,通常在几秒内就能完成识别。实测中,即便是“牛头牌香葱酱”这类小众调味品,系统也能准确识别并自动标注入库时间。
更智能的是,冰箱现在能区分“健怡可乐”和“零度可乐”,并准确统计同类商品数量。对于牛油果等易腐食材,它还会根据存放时间推送临期提醒。当用户频繁取出某样食物时,冰箱会主动询问是否将其加入购物清单,方便用户在手机端查看,省去了每周手动整理清单的麻烦。
在语音控制方面,借助Gemini,用户现在可以通过语音询问冰箱设置、查看滤芯更换日期,甚至获得故障排查指导。对于更复杂的硬件问题,三星推出了“可靠性AI”功能,可实时监控压缩机等核心部件状态,在故障恶化前预警。如果确需维修,经用户授权后,AI可将设备健康数据共享给售后人员,支持远程调整参数——例如远程减少制冰机的注水量以解决冰块粘连问题,免去上门维修的麻烦。
当然,AI并非完美无缺。测试中曾出现冰箱误将妻子手指上的创可贴识别为“蔬菜”的“幻觉”情况,且系统目前仍只支持Bixby语音助手,未直接集成Gemini界面。但总体而言,从最初仅有100多种识别能力的“技术演示”,到如今能自动追踪2000余种食材并主动提醒补货,三星的这次更新让冰箱真正向“有用的智能家居”迈进了一大步。尽管偶有瑕疵,它已称得上是一个得力的食品管理助手。
中文翻译:
三星的定制系列冰箱更新是迈向实用AI的一大步
给冰箱安装软件更新这件事本身已经有些奇怪,更别提还是为了提升其AI能力了。但这正是本周三星定制系列冰箱正在发生的事,而让我惊讶的是,这次更新在让现代冰箱真正实现实用的机器学习方面取得了重大进展。
简单回顾一下,三星已经在定制系列冰箱上提供AI功能好几年了,比如自动识别食物和规划餐食。但正如我去年年底评测其旗舰机型后发现的那样,该公司的AI能力仍在完善中。此前,冰箱能识别大约60种不同的新鲜食物(如水果和蔬菜),外加约50种包装商品,比如酸奶或爆米花。这算是一个不错的开始,但考虑到普通超市里食材种类的繁多,这还远远不够。此外,你往往还需要输入额外数据,比如物品数量或首次放入时间,这让AI辅助的杂货追踪变得比我想象的更繁琐。我不知道你怎么想,但我通常不想在冰箱上打字,而且我确信三星的工程师也这么认为,这很可能就是这次定制系列冰箱软件重大更新的原因。
那么,有什么新变化?
最大的变化是三星增加了对谷歌Gemini的支持,这有几个重要影响。通过将三星现有的设备端物体识别与谷歌的云端模型相结合,可识别的食物总数从仅100多种增加到超过2000种。这确实意味着你需要将冰箱连接到Wi-Fi,但考虑到它支持的其他智能功能,比如日历集成和视频播放,这并不算过分要求。
另一个更新是,三星利用Gemini扩展了语音控制功能,允许用户通过语音命令让冰箱更改设备设置、查看细节(比如水滤芯上次更换的时间),甚至帮助排查问题。根据情况,冰箱还可以播放关于如何解决问题的教程视频。
对于更复杂或更难解决的问题,三星推出了所谓的“可靠性AI”,旨在监控冰箱组件或在故障变得严重之前帮助识别问题。或者,在设备需要维修时,AI可以向维修人员提供更详细的信息,甚至让他们远程解决某些问题。
例如,一位三星代表告诉我,如果客户打电话说制冰机出来的冰块结成团粘在一起,可靠性AI可以让维修人员减少加到冰盘中的水量——而无需亲自上门。关键是,三星表示,虽然冰箱会监控和追踪设备健康指标,但所有者需要明确同意维修人员才能访问这些数据。同时,如果问题确实需要上门维修,三星表示,通过将数据共享给维修技术人员,人们可以更快地识别并解决问题,而不是在没有任何背景信息的情况下到场,从头开始诊断。
这在现实中如何运作
我的测试机在使用八个月期间没有出现任何机械问题,所以我无法评估三星的“可维修性AI”。不过,在三星总部首次体验后,我在过去两周有机会使用了定制系列新软件的早期版本——包括其对云端物体识别的升级支持——改进是显著的。即使使用了一段时间,我仍然对它识别出的食物种类之多感到惊讶。在我冰箱深处,有一罐“牛头牌红葱酱”,这是一种来自台湾相当小众的配料,几乎只用于亚洲菜肴。但AI毫不费力地识别出了它,自动标记并记录了它首次放入冰箱的时间到AI食物管理器中。
此外,系统现在在识别品牌和计数特定配料方面做得更好了,以创建更详细的清单。它能区分健怡可乐和零度可乐,同时准确记录每种有多瓶。而且,尽管冰箱经常需要连接某处的云端服务器来帮助识别各种物品,结果出现得相当快,通常只需几秒钟。对于像牛油果这样的食物,我欣喜地发现冰箱会追踪你拥有的时间,并在可能接近过期时弹出通知。当然,它并不总是准确,但我真正需要的只是一个提醒让我检查一下,而它确实做到了。
我还注意到,冰箱现在会记住你频繁取出特定食物的情况,然后询问你是否要将该物品添加到购物清单中。这是一个很好的提醒,让你补充常用食材,而且以低摩擦的方式实现,不会变得烦人。这样一来,你只需在商店时查看手机,而不必每周手动整理清单。此外,由于冰箱在识别和追踪内部物品方面做得更好了,它可以更好地建议你利用现有食材烹饪的食谱。
尽管如此,和许多当前模型一样,AI并不总能把握每一个细节。例如,当它自动将一个假奶油奶酪盒标记为“Philadelphia植物基”时,我最初印象深刻,直到我意识到标签不完整,AI只是读取了盖子上的文字,而没有智能来准确完成描述。别误会,它提供了足够的信息帮助我在查看食物管理器时搞清楚冰箱里有什么,只是还不够精准。
前景与仍需改进之处
这次更新的一个问题是,和许多当前的AI服务一样,三星的新软件可能有点过于自信或容易产生幻觉。有一次,当我妻子把东西放回冰箱时,算法拍下了她手指上颜色鲜艳的创可贴,并将其标记为蔬菜,而这显然不是。其他时候它似乎只是猜测。但我认为,从约100种可识别物品增加到超过2000种,即使有限制,也是一个非常受欢迎的改进。
另一个奇怪的地方是,尽管三星在冰箱的许多新功能中利用了谷歌的AI模型,你在设备内部却看不到任何明显的Gemini标识。这有点遗憾,因为Bixby仍然是唯一可以直接与之对话的数字助手。
我之前说过,三星的AI食物识别仍在完善中,我认为现在依然如此。通过这次最新更新,该公司更接近实现一款拥有真正实用AI功能冰箱的承诺。曾经感觉更像一个有前景的技术演示的东西,迅速变成了一个追踪杂货的方便工具,即使偶尔还有一些小问题。
英文来源:
Samsung's Bespoke update is big step towards a useful AI for your fridge
The idea of installing a software update on your fridge already feels kind of weird, let alone one centered around improving its AI capabilities. But that's exactly what's happening to Samsung's line of Bespoke refrigerators this week, and to my surprise this patch is making major strides at providing truly useful machine learning in a modern day icebox.
As a quick recap, Samsung has offered AI-powered features like automatic food recognition and meal planning on its Bespoke refrigerators for a couple years already. However, as I found out after reviewing its flagship model late last year, the company's AI capabilities are still very much a work in progress. Previously, the fridge could recognize around 60 different kinds of fresh foods (like fruits and veggies) alongside another 50 or so packaged goods like yogurt or popcorn. That felt like a decent start, but considering the sheer number of different items you can find at a typical grocery store, it was far from complete. Furthermore, you often had to input additional data like the number of items or when something was first added, which made the idea of AI-assisted grocery tracking more tedious than I'd like. I don't know about you, but I generally don't want to have to type on my fridge and I'm pretty sure the engineers at Samsung agree, which is probably what brought about this major update to its Bespoke refrigerator software.
So what's new?
The big change is that Samsung is adding support for Google Gemini, which has several important implications. By combining Samsung's existing on-device object recognition with Google's cloud-based models, the total number of identifiable foods is increasing from just over 100 items to more than 2,000. Now this does mean you will need to connect the fridge to Wi-Fi, but considering the number of other smart features it supports like calendar integration and video playback, that's not a big ask.
Another update is that Samsung is using Gemini to expand voice controls, allowing users to ask the fridge to change things like device settings, check details like when the water filter was last replaced or to even help troubleshoot issues. And depending on the situation, the fridge can even play back a tutorial about how to solve the issue.
Alternatively, for more complicated or harder-to-solve problems, Samsung is introducing what it calls Reliability AI, which is designed to monitor the fridge's components or help identify faults before they get too serious. Or in cases where the device needs to be serviced, the AI can provide more detailed info to agents while potentially allowing them to fix certain things remotely.
For example, a Samsung representative told me that if a customer calls and says that cubes from the icemaker are coming out in clumps and stuck together, Reliability AI could allow agents to reduce the amount of water that is being added to the ice tray — all without ever needing to physically come to your home. Critically, Samsung says that while the fridge will monitor and track device health metrics, owners will need to provide express consent in order for repair personnel to access that data. Meanwhile, if an issue does require in-person servicing, Samsung says that by sharing this data with repair technicians, it allows people to identify and solve problems faster instead of having to arrive with no context and diagnose issues from scratch.
How this works in the real world
My test unit hasn't run into any mechanical issues in the eight months I've been using it, so I haven't been able to evaluate Samsung's Repairability AI. That said, after checking it out first at Samsung's headquarters, I've had the chance to use an early version of the Bespoke line's new software over the last two weeks — including its upgraded support for cloud-based object recognition — and the improvement is profound. Even after using it for a while, I'm still surprised by how many different foods it recognizes. Deep in the back of my fridge, I have a can of Bull Head Shallot Sauce, which is a rather niche ingredient from Taiwan used almost exclusively in Asian dishes. However, the AI had no trouble recognizing it, automatically tagging it and including when it was first added to the fridge's AI Food Manager.
On top of that, the system is now much better at recognizing brands and counting the number of specific ingredients in order to create more detailed listings. It can distinguish between a Diet Coke and Coke Zero while also accurately noting that there were multiples of each item. And even though the fridge often has to ping a cloud-based server somewhere to help recognize various items, results appeared rather quickly, often in less than a few seconds. And for certain foods like avocados, I was delighted that the fridge tracks how long you've had it and will surface a notification that it might be getting close to expiration. Granted, it's not always right, but all I really need is a reminder to check on things and it does just that.
I also noticed that the fridge now remembers when you frequently take a specific food out and then asks if you want to add that item to your shopping list. It's a nice reminder to replenish staples you use regularly and happens in a low-friction way, so it doesn't become annoying. From there, you can simply check your phone when you're at the store instead of needing to manually curate a list every week. Also, because the fridge does a much better job of recognizing and tracking what's inside, it can provide better suggestions about recipes you can cook using ingredients you already have.
That said, like a lot of current models, the AI doesn't always nail every detail. For example, I was initially impressed when it automatically labeled a tub of fake cream cheese as "Philadelphia Plant-based," until I realized that the label was incomplete and the AI was merely reading what was written on the lid and didn't have the smarts to accurately finish the description. Don't get me wrong, it provides more than enough info to help me figure out what's in the fridge when I'm glancing at the Food Manager. It's just not quite spot on.
Outlook and things that still need work
The one issue with this update is that like a lot of AI services today, Samsung's new software can be a bit overconfident or prone to hallucinations. One time, as my wife was putting something back in the fridge, the algorithm took a picture of a brightly colored bandage on her finger and labeled that as a veggie, which it very much is not. Other times it seemingly just guesses. But I'd argue going from around 100 identifiable items to over 2,000 is a very welcome improvement even with the limitations.
The other weird thing is that even though Samsung is leveraging Google's AI models for a lot of the fridge's new features, you won't see any obvious callouts to Gemini inside the device itself. That's kind of a bummer because Bixby is still the only digital assistant you can use and talk to directly.
I've said before that Samsung's AI food recognition is a work in progress and I think that still holds true. With this latest update, the company has gotten a lot closer to delivering on the promise of a fridge with truly useful AI-powered features. What once felt more like a promising tech demo has quickly become a handy tool to keep track of your groceries, even with some hiccups here and there.
文章标题:三星的Bespoke更新是迈向冰箱实用人工智能的重要一步
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