| Title | Bloomberg: Amazon Working on a Home Robot | |
| Date | Monday April 23 2018, @09:55PM | |
| Author | martyb | |
| Topic | ||
| from the Rosie dept. | ||
Amazon is reportedly working on a home robot that would follow users around and provide access to Alexa:
Amazon is reportedly developing its first robot for the home, according to Bloomberg. The project has been given the internal codename "Vesta," named after the Roman goddess of the hearth. It's being developed by Lab126, the Amazon hardware R&D center that previously built the Kindle, Fire Phone, and Echo.
There are no firm details on what Amazon's robot looks like or what purpose it will serve, but Bloomberg suggests it could be a sort of "mobile Alexa" — following users around their house to places where they can't speak directly to an Echo speaker. Prototype robots built by Amazon reportedly have computer vision software and cameras for navigation, and the company is said to be planning to seed devices in employees' homes by the end of the year. Bloomberg notes that the general public might be able to test such robot prototypes "as early as 2019."
From such scant details, it's difficult to know exactly what Amazon is planning, but it's safe to say that a home robot in this case does not mean some sort of "robot butler able to perform a variety of household chores." The technology needed for this sort of device just doesn't exist yet in the commercial sphere (although companies like Boston Dynamics are working on it).
The company's Amazon Robotics subsidiary, formerly Kiva Systems, makes robots for Amazon warehouses.
Amazon's Prometheans are going to kill your family from inside the comfort of your own home.
Also at TechCrunch.
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