CLEAN lifestyle
CLEAN lifestyle Laurastar Gives Iron Design A Lift Laurastar has broken the mould with its latest steamgenerator iron. Billed as “the wardrobe’s best friend”, the Laurastar Lift combines pioneering design in five contemporary colours with ease of use, next-generation technology and Swiss quality. And, as its name suggests, the Laurastar Lift is also portable. A sturdy handle makes it easy to position the iron wherever you prefer, from the floor to the ironing board. But while the Laurastar Lift may look more like a designer ‘objet’ than a household appliance, don’t be fooled: it has all the power to deliver the ultimate ironing experience. Not only is it equipped with a patented 3D active soleplate, but it also features another Laurastar innovation: pulsed steam. The iron effortlessly eliminates creases by intermittently releasing a dose of ultra-fine, doublevolume steam over the entire surface of the soleplate. Other features include Laurastar’s autostop function, which automatically turns off the iron after 10 minutes of non-use. » HALL 4.1 / STAND 209 The Laurastar Lift: ironing in style 32
Special Feature Leave It to the Robot Ecovacs’ intelligent appliances offer glimpse of a smarter future Had enough of vacuuming or cleaning windows? Worried about home security, air pollution or your elderly parent falling over when nobody’s around? Then pay a visit to the Ecovacs stand and check out the robotic solutions that could make your life smarter, easier and a lot more enjoyable… GfK reveals sales of robots have grown fivefold in two years, from a mere 200,000 units in 2009 to top a million in 2011. From the crowds around the Ecovacs stand, it is easy to see why. “Robots are cool,” says Harald Koehler, Executive General Manager of Ecovacs Europe, describing the public’s reaction to the robotic products crawling around his stand and up its glass walls. A fleet of round, UFO-esque Deebots are hard at work on the floor, silently sucking up dirt from a range of surfaces — carpets, hard wood, tiles and linoleum. On the wall behind them are several Winbot 7 robotic window cleaners, clinging like geckos to the glass surface, held fast by magnets. A robotic air purifier roams in another corner, ‘sniffing’ the air quality and detecting odours before automatically cleansing the atmosphere. But the piece de resistance — and the robot generating the most ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from IFA visitors — is the Famibot home-service ‘companion’. A cross between a home help, a guard dog, and caring friend, a communication device and an entertainer, Famibot allows you to monitor and control your home and family wherever you are, whenever you want. All that’s required is a mobile phone and a 3G or wi-fi connection. “With Famibot, you have your home in your hand at any moment,” Koehler says. “You know that feeling when you get to the airport and panic that you’ve left the gas on? With the Famibot, you can use your phone to steer the Famibot into the kitchen and raise his ‘neck’ so you can see your cooker on your mobile screen.” This ability to patrol the house also has a ‘sentry’ function, Koehler adds. Your Famibot can not only tell you whether somebody has broken into your home, but also act as a smoke detector, alerting family members if there is too much smoke in the atmosphere. And that’s not the end of the Famibot’s talent. You can use him to command and play music, bring you the latest news and weather reports, ask him to purify the room or turn on your air-conditioning while you’re at work. He can act as an ‘aid’ companion to the elderly, entertaining them with voice content and music, while enabling you to keep in touch with them and tend to their needs. Reactions to the Famibot have been overwhelming positive, Koehler reports: “A lot of women just say, ‘I need one of these…’ And then you get the funny guys, saying, ‘If I had one of these, I wouldn’t need my wife…’” The funny guys will have to wait until mid-2013, however, which is when the Famibot is expected to hit the market. It is expected to retail at less than euro 1,000 a unit. » HALL 8.1 / STAND 208 Ecovacs Europe’ Harald Koehler: “Robots are cool” “With Famibot, you have your home in your hand at any moment” WHEN ITS CLEANING WINDOWS… ECOVACS claims the Winbot 7 is the only robotic window cleaner in the world that can clean any window, regardless of glass thickness. Unlike other robotic models, the Winbot sits only on one side of the glass, held fast by a vacuum suction pump. This generates enough suction to support an additional weight of 13 kgs, or around 130 apples. The user moistens the cleaning pad with glass-cleaning solution or water. The Winbot takes the strain, removing dirt with a microfibre pad before a squeegee wipes away the liquid residue. A dry microfibre pad behind the Winbot’s caterpillar tracks removes any remaining dirt and tread marks. IFA International • Wednesday 5 th September 2012 33
