Robots want to be your friend at CES Asia 2017
There sure are a lot of robots this year at CES Asia 2017, and they all want to be your friend in some way.
There are utility robots; trash cans that move around, remote presence robots with oddly detached human faces, robots with disturbingly cheery anime faces, and robot suitcases that follow you around.
There are also robots for education and entertainment; robots that come with educational apps, holographic bots that you can talk with, and robots that dance for you while blaring music from their speakers.
Beneath the robot mania, I remain skeptical. A robot form isn’t necessarily for education or teleconferencing when a smartphone or tablet will do the same job. You also don’t need a digital assistant to be in robot form when a smart speaker, like the Google Home or Apple HomePod, will do.
But I might just be grumpy. I’m told that the Canbot Xiaoyou, a home bot that you can converse with, but can’t even move about on its own intelligently, is already in its fourth generation of production. And there were a lot of people swarming around a Chinese 3D holographic AI companion, so some people at least do seem to want a robot friend.
The positive side of robot mania may be the boost it gives to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics) education. I talked to a representative from the Santa Clara County Office of Education in the US, and they plan to use the Avatarmind iPal robot as a teaching tool.
The iPal runs Android OS and ships with its own SDK, so students can use it to learn programming. Another company here, Metas, produces Lego-like bricks that kids can assemble and program. So even if these robots can’t find new friends, they’ll at least encourage some kids to become their new masters.
Alvin Soon / Former Deputy Editor
I like coffee and cameras, but not together.