The Kuri Home Robot

I attended an introductory presentation on Bosch's Kuri home robotic system today.  This is a two foot high moving robot with eyes.   The eyes it have an embedded video camera,  so can transfer HD images it sees to a smartphone App.

The use of eyes immediately reminded me of the studies that have been done that showed that the anthropomorphic addition of eyes can increase our engagement with a system.  (See Media Equation Tag Below)  So this can be interpreted as having a personality.  Perhaps most useful in a household with children.

The device can roll around, can interpret and obey commands, can do voice and face recognition.  It has no voice itself,  but can act as a speaker delivering music.  It can't talk, but can communicate via a simple code of chirps for Yes, No or Hello.  Works with the IFTTT rule engine.

Also very interesting, it claims to be able to learn a home space, and how the inhabitants use the space.  That's all I know now, you can learn much more here.  Its expensive at US $699, not yet available, but you can pre-order at the link and then buy at a discount..   More technical details.    And a blog.   Lots of videos at the links.

Some things that come up immediately.   Charging, how does it deal with stairs and carpets,  it is shown with children,  what are the COPPA implications in the US ....  ?