As part of today's hardware event, Amazon announced Astro, a home robot that costs $999.
Astro is a small household robot that features a rotating screen with eyes and can move around using wheels that are attached to the base. Amazon says Astro is aimed to appear friendly and animated and can patrol around your house. Unlike some smart home devices, Astro is designed to navigate around objects and avoid bumping into things such as pets and stairs thanks to intelligent motion.
Astro can do a ton of commands, including ones found in other Echo devices such as sending you reminders, making a video call, and telling you the weather or the time. But the household bot can also do unique actions, such as delivering something like a beverage or another item to someone else in the house on your behalf.
Astro can also be used for security purposes. Astro will alert owners if it detects an unrecognized person or hears certain sounds when you are not home, and with a Ring Protect Pro subscription, Astro will investigate activity and save videos onto Ring's cloud storage system.
The robot comes equipped with microphones, cameras, and sensors but if privacy is an issue for you, Amazon confirmed that you can turn these features off whenever you'd like. Owners of an Astro robot will also be able to set "out of bound zones," which will set limits on where the robot is not allowed to go in the house.
Amazon did not mention when Astro will be available for purchase publicly, but just like the Ring Always Home Cam, those interested can apply for a chance to preorder the "Day 1 Edition" of Astro.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
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Astro is a small household robot that features a rotating screen with eyes and can move around using wheels that are attached to the base. Amazon says Astro is aimed to appear friendly and animated and can patrol around your house. Unlike some smart home devices, Astro is designed to navigate around objects and avoid bumping into things such as pets and stairs thanks to intelligent motion.
Astro can do a ton of commands, including ones found in other Echo devices such as sending you reminders, making a video call, and telling you the weather or the time. But the household bot can also do unique actions, such as delivering something like a beverage or another item to someone else in the house on your behalf.
Astro can also be used for security purposes. Astro will alert owners if it detects an unrecognized person or hears certain sounds when you are not home, and with a Ring Protect Pro subscription, Astro will investigate activity and save videos onto Ring's cloud storage system.
The robot comes equipped with microphones, cameras, and sensors but if privacy is an issue for you, Amazon confirmed that you can turn these features off whenever you'd like. Owners of an Astro robot will also be able to set "out of bound zones," which will set limits on where the robot is not allowed to go in the house.
Amazon did not mention when Astro will be available for purchase publicly, but just like the Ring Always Home Cam, those interested can apply for a chance to preorder the "Day 1 Edition" of Astro.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Continue reading...