Amazon has launched a home robot called ASTRO, which has been under development for the past few years and operates autonomously at home using artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies.
With the help of the round eyes on the flat panel display, Astro can walk around the house and find the person who answers the call; Use its periscope camera to ensure that the furnace is turned off; Detect the sound of smoke or carbon monoxide alarm; Or find someone to remind you.
Amazon released the new robot on Tuesday morning as part of its larger Alexa and echo virtual activities, which are some of Astro’s scenes.
Astro can also automatically patrol houses when people are away and “actively investigate when an incident is detected”, the company said.
[update: Vice motherboard has released details of Amazon’s internal documents describing how the feature works as a monitoring device and comments from anonymous people working on Astro who say there are defects in the technology on the version they work.]
This feature works with the ring protect Pro subscription service. Its theme is similar to Amazon’s automatic flying UAV “always at home camera” announced a year ago, but it has not been released yet.
Jamie Siminoff, founder of ring, said at Amazon’s event this morning: “facts have proved that learning to fly is quite difficult.”. Amazon today released an invitation list for the “always at home” camera, but did not give a release date.
Amazon said that the Astro robot is expected to have a final retail price of $1449.99 and will be sold at an entry price of $999.99 through Amazon’s Day 1 edition plan, which will be released by invitation later this year. It will offer a six-month free ring protect Pro subscription.
Amazon announced a series of privacy protection measures built into Astro robot, including pressing the button to turn off the function of microphone and camera, focusing on device processing if possible, and displaying what the robot is doing at any time. There is an LED light on the periscope, which sends a signal when the periscope sends audio or video to the cloud.
With the launch of new products by ring and Amazon, privacy and security issues have always been challenges they face, including Amazon’s handling of Alexa voice recording and a series of headline attacks on ring cameras two years ago.
Charlie tritschler, vice president of Amazon products, wrote: “during the whole development process, Astro conducted hundreds of thousands of hours of internal testing with Amazon employees in offices and homes all over the country.” during my work with ASTRO, I thought of a lot of new things to let it do. I believe customers will have more ideas we haven’t thought of yet. “