LG has just unveiled its own vision of the domestic robot with the Smart Home AI Agent, a pretty miniature butler mounted on wheels which promises to take care of your connected home and accompany you on a daily basis.
CES is always an opportunity to discover innovative or wacky concepts. Stroller capable of rocking baby on its own, connected cat flap, transparent screen, ultra-powerful portable console, wireless headphones capable of detecting your vital signs… It’s very simple, we would never have imagined it, but the manufacturers make it did ! Not surprisingly, the focus this year was on artificial intelligence. And one of the most intriguing new features is undoubtedly Smart Home AI Agent, LG’s little domestic robot which wins the prize for cuteness! With an appearance reminiscent of certain droids from the universe of Star Wars (R2D2, BB-8, BD-1), it promises nothing more and nothing less than to revolutionize our daily lives, by interacting directly with our brand household appliances. A project that evokes that of Astro, the small robot from Amazon launched in 2021, and many others before it (see our article).
Smart Home AI Agent: an assistant to manage a connected home
The little robot moves on two wheels and displays a particularly expressive face on a screen. Equipped with onboard cameras, it will work using LG’s ThinQ platform, well known to owners of the brand’s connected dishwashers or washing machines. It includes several functions powered by artificial intelligence, such as facial recognition, machine learning and a generative AI model dedicated to language, so that it can “chat” naturally with its owners.
According to LG, the Smart Home AI Agent will patrol the house looking for things to do. In particular, it will be able to monitor pets, detect a window left open, a light on or even an unknown presence. Obviously, it will be able to interact with the brand’s connected tools, such as TVs or smartphones, but also large household appliances, such as refrigerators or ovens. We can imagine that it will be the same with surveillance equipment (cameras, alarms, intrusion detectors, etc.), the small robot itself being equipped with several sensors (temperature, humidity, air quality …). These will allow him to adjust the temperature in the house or activate the air filtration systems before the members of the household return. The little robot can also be useful in daily tasks, by reminding its users to take their medication or making emergency calls if necessary. A real little butler!
The Smart Home AI Agent will also be able to interact with people in the home by understanding the context of the conversation and the intentions of its interlocutors. Thus, he will be able to welcome them when they return home and adapt his attitude according to their mood, which he will detect by analyzing the tone of their voice and their facial expressions, before offering them music, films or adapted podcasts. And like any good self-respecting voice assistant, it will be able to provide various useful information on a daily basis, such as traffic conditions, weather forecasts, the day’s schedule, etc.
The small robot is part of the “Zero Labor Home” initiative (which can be translated as “the effortless home”) launched by LG, the aim of which is to completely free the user from household chores by interconnecting the all of its smart devices. It remains to be seen how it will position itself on the issue of privacy – it would be a real gold mine if a hacker were to get hold of it to hack their data. Neither a marketing date nor a price have yet been announced.