In Zenbo, the Asus corporation has launched a robot for the whole family onto the market. It plays with the children, gives reminders of appointments, takes care of the elderly, and watches over the home when the family is out.
The way the little guy looks at you with his big eyes, you just has to love him: Zenbo, the household robot from Asus. He has been available to pre-order in Taiwan since January 2017, though the rest of the world will have to wait a while yet. While revealing ASUS Zenbo, Chairman Shih said: “For decades, humans have dreamed of owning such a companion: one that is smart, dear to our hearts, and always at our disposal. Our ambition is to enable robotic computing for every household”. At an expected price of less than 600 dollars, the signs indiate that the company’s ambition can be achieved.
An untiring carer for the elderly
For that price, buyers get a robot designed to be a helper, entertainer and companion for families. Zenbo moves autonomously around the home on a spherical body, interacting with the human residents by speech and via his round “head”, featuring a display which shows different faces depending on his current “mood”: blushing red when embarrassed; eyes sparkling when excited; or laughing heartily. Although intended for the whole family, Asus’s robot is focused primarily on the older generation: Zenbo is designed to look after their health and help them connect to the digital world. He watches over the home and in an emergency, such as if an elderly person suffers a fall, alerts a designated relative by sending a signal to their smartphone. The relative can then control Zenbo remotely, and use his built-in camera to check that everything is in order. A touch-screen, displaying Zenbo’s “face”, also enables elderly family members to carry out a range of online tasks with ease – such as making video calls, using social media, shopping, or streaming movies and TV shows. The robot is voice controlled.
Educational playmate
The family’s children will also enjoy Zenbo – as a fun playmate, with a distinctly educational touch. He can entertain them with interactive stories, and teach them games that encourage them to be creative and think logically. With his stereo sound system, the electronic companion can play the children’s favourite songs – and even dance along with them too. At bedtime, Zenbo will read the little ones a good-night story, complete with pictures displayed on his monitor face. And he will also monitor the light in the room at the same time.
Interface to the Smart Home
But Zenbo is also a household helper, designed to make the lives of all the family easier based on a range of capabilities. He can be linked to many so-called Smart Home functions, to control the lights, the TV or the air-conditioning system for example. The family can also check the monitor to see who’s calling when the doorbell sounds – and issue a voice command for Zenbo to unlock the door. In the kitchen, the household helper can read out recipes, or act as a voice-activated timer, so the residents are not distracted from their cooking. When the family is out, the robot’s camera monitors the home, and the residents can view the captured images on their smartphones.
Open for third-party apps
In order to continually expand the range of tasks that Zenbo can perform, Asus is committed to cooperation agreements with partners and developers in a wide variety of sectors – from education and local public transport, to building cleaning services. The aim is for all of them to expand the capabilities and potential applications of the household robot with complementary apps or services. To that end, the company has launched a dedicated developer program, and offers third parties the relevant development tools. For the version sold in Taiwan, for example, Asus worked together with the country’s police service. The result is an app by which family members can contact their local police station in an emergency, talking to an officer via Zenbo’s videophone system.