Today is all about ASUS it seems. This Taiwanese company has introduced a bevy of new devices during their press event in Taipei. ASUS has rolled out their new ZenFone 3 lineup (3 new handsets), including the flagship ZenFone 3 Deluxe smartphone. In addition to these smartphones, the company has also released some Windows-based laptops, and a device which we’ll talk about in this article, the ASUS Zenbo robot. Sounds interesting? Well, read on.
Following the announcement of Softbank’s Pepper home robot a while back, ASUS brings their very own cute robot to the table. The ASUS Zenbo is best described as a home robot / assistant, a part of your IoT home setup if you will. Jonney Shih said the following while he way introducing Zenbo: “Our ambition is to enable robotic computing for every household”. The ASUS Zenbo is expected not only to assist you, but to entertain as well, and it is aimed at older people mostly it seems. As already mentioned, this robot is a part of an IoT setup in your household, you can connect it to your smart gadgets, so he’ll be able to show you who’s at the front door (presuming you have a smart camera connected), and will be able to unlock that front door for you, once again, presuming you have such a system in place. In addition to this, the ASUS Zenbo is able to control your smart TV, smart lightbulbs, smart air conditioners, and pretty much every other ‘smart’ gadget you have lying around the house.
The ASUS Zenbo is capable of moving on its own, and also takes voice commands pretty well. You can basically tell him where to go, and he will obey without a problem. Zenbo’s face also serves as a touchscreen, this little robot will be able to patch through video calls, while you’ll also be able to surf by using his face, and do all kinds of other stuff. The ASUS Zenbo will be able to remind you of your appointments, patch through urgent messages, and even dance to music. Don’t expect this robot to be available anytime soon though, ASUS is promoting a Zenbo developer program, and as part of it, developers will be offered Zenbo’s SDK and a bevy of information so that they can make apps for this thing. Once ASUS decides to release this robot, it will cost $599, which is not all that expensive for such a product, though we still have to see the final product.
