CES 2020: Samsung dispaly off Ball bot that follows you

Samsung has unveiled a tennis ball-like robotic known as Ballie that beeps and rolls round, following its proprietor.

The system has a built-in digicam so that it may possibly seize and retailer “special moments”, the South Korean tech large instructed an viewers on the CES tech present in Las Vegas.

“I love this guy,” stated president and chief government H S Kim as Ballie chased him about on stage.

One analyst stated the bot was a enjoyable concept – although it would wrestle with stairs.

In addition to shadowing its proprietor, Ballie acts as a health assistant and may assist with family chores. For instance, it may possibly activate sensible residence gadgets corresponding to robotic vacuums, when it determines that cleansing is required.

On social media, the system has already been in comparison with robotic companions from a number of films – together with BB-Eight from the most recent Star Wars trilogy movies.

“It’s fun – it reminded me of a cross between a Sphero toy and R2-D2 with the sounds it was making,” stated Simon Bryant at market analysis agency Futuresource.

“How practical it is when it can’t go up stairs, I’m not sure.”

Mr Bryant stated he thought it was unusual that Samsung had launched Ballie, which has voice recognition capabilities, with none point out of the agency’s voice-activated digital assistant Bixby, which is in-built to smartphones and TVs.

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“I can see a lot of people who will be hesitant with security and privacy concerns,” commented Paul Gagnon, an analyst at IHS Markit.

Samsung stated that Ballie would adhere to privateness and knowledge safety requirements. The agency has not but revealed when the system might be in the stores, or what it should value. When requested why now was the suitable time to launch a private robotic like this, Samsung spokesman Benjamin Braun instructed the BBC:”There are two technologies that are helping this come to life. One is artificial intelligence and the other one is 5G. Those are very much focus areas for Samsung in 2020.”

Throughout its keynote presentation, Samsung additionally mentioned different applied sciences together with a mini-exoskeleton worn across the waist and thighs that it stated could possibly be used throughout train or by individuals with mobility points.

The system known as Gems, which stands for Gait Enhancing and Motivating System. It was urged that a person may don Gems together with a pair of augmented actuality glasses in an effort to expertise a exercise with a digital private coach, or discover underwater landscapes. Samsung additionally stated it might search to develop new applied sciences to be used in sensible buildings and cities. Nonetheless, Mr Bryant stated he was left unimpressed by many of those concepts.

“I thought it just smacked as a desperate attempt to move on from mobile,” he instructed the BBC.