Meet your first robot butler
Asus has unveiled a home robot for the price of a mid-range laptop. Will Zenbo find a place in our homes – and hearts – or will he be added to the scrap heap like robots before him?
Zenbo, open the door! Zenbo, how do I make paella? Zenbo, read junior a story! “Zenbo” isn’t a magical command to control your spouse, it’s Asus’ newly announced robot butler, featuring facial recognition, cloudbased AI and a cheerful animated face – all for $599 (£415).
Unveiled at Computex in Taipei, the 2ft-tall robot rolled on to the stage with Asus chair Jonney Shih, snapping his photo on verbal command. Technical details on how the robot operates weren’t revealed, but similar ideas have been attempted in the past (sit, Sony Aibo, sit!). Indeed, the real technological leap is the price, which is about the same as an iPhone.
Of course, the price is moot if Zenbo can’t deliver on its many promises. Aside from an ability to “emote” via its cartoon eyes, Asus said that Zenbo can monitor your home while you’re away, entertain your children, remind you of calendar items and manage your smart-home kit. It can’t mix you a drink, but it can tell you exactly what goes well with Pimms – and even order you a bottle. Plus, when paired with a smartband, it can help assist as well as monitor seniors, sending alerts to family if they haven’t taken their medication or have fallen over.
And that’s just the start. Shih also announced a Zenbo developer program, calling for apps. “Asus can’t develop the value on its own,” said IDC analyst Bryan Ma. “Creative third parties, on the other hand, could come up with interesting usage models – just as Apple’s iPhone only became more valuable when Jobs finally opened it up to thirdparty developers.”
There’s one problem: the Zenbo doesn’t actually exist yet. There’s no shipping date and it could remain vapourware. “Oftentimes, little projects such as this attract attention, but that doesn’t necessarily make it commercially viable,” noted Ma.
If you simply must have a robot