AMAZON ASTRO. Far from the concepts of the 1950s based on humanoid models, Amazon has just unveiled its own vision of the domestic robot with Astro, a kind of Alexa assistant mounted on wheels but much more curious …
Amazon has been busy for its back-to-school conference. The firm presented many connected products such as the Echo Show 15, the new version of its voice assistant that looks like a painting that can be hung on the wall, the Amazon Glow, a screen with a speaker capable of projecting images on the ground (to amuse the children), Hello View, a connected activity bracelet or even Always Home Cam, a surveillance camera mounted on a drone.
But the most surprising announcement remains undoubtedly Astro, the companion robot. Mounted on three wheels – two large at the front and a small directional one at the rear – this robot) the look of “increased vacuum cleaner” measures about fifty centimeters high for a weight of just under 10 kg. It has a 10-inch screen and a camera that looks like a submarine periscope so you can monitor what’s going on higher up. Amazon wants to make Astro a real everyday companion.
A home surveillance agent
Astro can keep the house in the absence of its owners by walking alone from room to room. It also embeds a facial recognition system to identify family members and differentiate them from possible intruders. If it detects a stranger, it will send an alert directly to the mobile and will display live images of the situation. With the Alexa Guard function, Astro remains attentive to sirens of smoke or carbon monoxide detectors or to the noise of broken glass to give the alert. In the same way, we can ask Astro to go to a particular room to check that we have turned off the gas or turned off the light, for example.
A butler always available
To make Astro more familiar, Amazon relied on its screen. Astro thus displays large round virtual eyes capable of reacting to situations. The screen, supported by a speaker, can also display videos and follow you around the house to broadcast the content you want without taking one sole off you. Equipped with a front camera, the robot transforms in the blink of an eye into a videoconferencing device to call relatives. This is also one of the functions put forward by Amazon, which already imagines Astro to keep the elderly company and allow them to stay in contact with their loved ones (and also give them the possibility of keeping an eye on grandpa or grandma).
A potential coffee maker?
He sees everything, he hears everything… and he also records a lot of things. This robot would be a real gold mine if a hacker were to seize it to hack its data. He could thus know the layout of the house, carry out a quick inventory to find valuables, learn a lot about the activities and habits of his owners, etc. On this point, Amazon wants to be reassuring. “When designing Astro, we knew that security features and strong privacy controls had to be the foundation of the device. That’s why we designed Astro with multiple security features and layers of security. privacy and security to let you stay in control of your experience and protect your data “, said Charlie Tritschler, vice president of products at Amazon. As for confidentiality, the robot is on board, like the Echo voice assistants, devices to cut microphones and cameras and it is also possible to deny him access to certain rooms of the house. In addition, an LED indicates the times when it transmits data to the cloud or when it records audio or video data.
How much does the Astro robot cost?
Astro is not the first companion robot to try to get into homes and apartments. There have been some precedents in recent years such as the Asus Zenbo (around 600 euros), the Omate Yumi (around 350 euros), the Buddy Robot (around 650 euros) or the Kuri (around 700 euros). Amazon is trying its luck with Astro (in the United States only for the moment) with a price of 999 dollars (about 830 euros) in pre-order then 1450 dollars (about 1200 euros) thereafter. Amazon has not yet indicated if and when its Astro robot will be available in France. The American giant is no doubt waiting if the concept will take hold before extending it to the rest of the planet.