LG bet on a robot revolution at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, where it unveiled four new robotic offerings.
Two are meant for the airport. LG’s Airport Guide Robot able to scan passengers’ tickets, offer information about their flights, and even lead them to their gates; while the Airport Cleaning Robot is pretty much what it sounds like – a Roomba on an industrial scale. Meanwhile, a Lawn Mowing Robot is equipped with a similar array of sensors to keep consumers’ lawns trim.
But it’s LG’s Hub Robot that could make the biggest splash in the consumer electronics market. It’s a smart home hub device along the lines of Amazon’s Alexa, and in fact uses Alexa software for its voice-based interactive digital assistant. It’s designed to connect with various smart appliances to allow users to set alarms, play music, and even check what’s inside the fridge.
A lot of big companies are looking to establish their technology in the center of the smart home à la Alexa, but LG has apparently got the jump on Apple by integrating facial recognition into the Hub Robot, which can recognize the faces of different members of a household, offering personalized greetings. It’s very possible that LG won’t be the last company to bring such technology to a domestic robot, and Apple, Amazon, and others will likely be paying close attention to how consumers take to LG’s friendly-looking household helper.
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