LG lets you control your TV with a single finger gesture

LG Electronics unveiled a bunch of products that fit into its theme of living “the smart life,” where touchscreen and gesture-based interfaces make for easy control of every kind of consumer electronics device or appliance. Among the new products are TVs that allow you to control the channels with small finger gestures.

The $11 billion Korean electronics giant made the announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

With its opening CES press conference, LG’s talk was very Apple-like, with a big emphasis on what consumers want. For its theme of the “smart life,” LG emphasized technology that should be free and natural, stress-free, and breathtaking.

Everybody is talking about smart products, said. Skott Ahn, chief technology officer at LG. He added, “What we really need is a smart life.”

He said life should be free of complicated interfaces and controls should be natural. So LG came up with “one touch connection,” so you can stream content throughout a network to a smart display, with a single touch. The technology uses near-field communication, or NFC, built into a smartphone. You can walk around the home tapping your smartphone to your washing machine and other appliances, issuing commands with the ease of a remote control.

LG also launched a Magic Remote for the new year, allowing you to change channels by writing numbers in the air with your finger. You can use voice commands, or use a finger to control your display. That requires a high-resolution camera on the TV that can discern finger movements.

Ahn said that technology should be stress-free. You can write messages on a video phone screen image on your smartphone (as pictured).

Ahn said that LG is launching its 84-inch OLED TV in the U.S. this March for $12,000 (other models are 65 inches and 55 inches). It is also launching an 84-inch Ultra HD television with 4K by 2K resolution. You can play 3D games on that screen, using your Android apps on an Optimus smartphone. LG also has a 100-inch laser TV with full HD and Smart TV categories. About 70 percent of the TV models will be connected to the web, and they will recognize natural language voice commands, so you won’t have to speak like a robot. You can share content from a smartphone or tablet to a TV.

LG is also launching a new Smart TV with a new generation of Google TV. LG isn’t giving up on 3D viewable TVs.

James Fishler, senior vice president of marketing at LG, said the company is introducing a full line of household appliances with NFC technology. You can monitor appliances from afar, issuing commands to a robot vacuum to clean the house before you get home. You can even check in on your oven by looking at your smartphone display. LG has 27 ovens and 72 refrigerators.

While Apple has the commanding mindshare for its iPhone, LG wants to be on the map in smartphones. The LG Optimus G has a quad-core LTE processor from Qualcomm. LG also launched a Nexus 4 device in a partnership with Google.