- The new LG TV has a simplified user interface
- LG Buddy for the help of friends and family
- Remote control has a larger source and can be an emergency alarm
LG has released a new television designed for a very specific population group: older people. The new Easy television will first be released in Korea, but LG intends to take it to other countries with “demographic data that ages rapidly, including the United States and Japan.”
There is a bit of online joke about visiting older family members and having to solve their intelligent televisions, but like many jokes, there is a real grain: smart television software is often not very simple. Like many people with elderly loved ones, I have cursed interfaces, controls and menus too complex even on the best televisions, so I am a lot here for what LG is doing.
And let’s be honest, smart televisions can be too complex even when you are relatively young. I am not the target population group here, although I am very time to “take my glasses to read my phone”, but I still had to summon my 12 -year -old boy the other day to discover which buried menu settings I would allow me to connect my AirPods to my Samsung set.
So what is LG doing so that your smart televisions are a smarter purchase for older people?
LG EASY TV: Key features for major spectators
Easy TV comes with an adjusted version of the Webos system with a simpler navigation and a larger source, and can use your live alert voice commands to configure reminders for things like taking your daily medications. There is a new remote control with a brighter backlight and larger buttons, including a large help button.
That button summons LG Buddy, which allows your friends, family or caregivers to take control of the TV remotely adjust the configuration, change tickets or program programming. It also enables voice and video calls, the latter through the TV camera, and exchange photos and videos of YouTube.
The help button can also be used to call for help in emergency situations where the person cannot make a phone call, such as falls: pressing the button helps three times or keeping it pressed will alert the designated contact. According to reports, LG plans to take this function to other televisions, not just easy television.
Looking at the remote control, I would have liked an even simpler, something more like the 4K Apple TV control or the current Fire TV remote control a bit expanded, but compared to the other LG remote that I have used, it is definitely a great improvement.
It is easy to make jokes about our loved ones and their televisions that are too mixed with a movement of movement established in the maximum, but today’s technology can really help people: the improvement of dialogue can make programs easier to listen, visual settings can make programs and movies easier to see, and voice agents and intelligent assistants can make our devices much easier to control.
And without being too morbid about it, the best of cases for all of us is that we will live to enjoy those accessibility characteristics. So we hope that more companies do what LG is doing, or perhaps a simplified version of the interface could become an option on each television …
