While Amazon’s voice-operated assistant Alexa permeated all sorts of future devices at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, other technology giants did their best to offer a personal assistant of their own.
And they were much cuter than the chunky tube that answers to “Alexa.”
Here’s our roundup of personal and resourceful robots seen at CES.
LG Hub: This little guy uses Amazon Alexa’s voice recognition technology to assist users by turning off the lights or air conditioner. There’s also a built-in screen that can show a recipe with step-by-step instructions, or stream music and offer weather updates on command. LG hasn’t committed to building Hub but wanted to show what the company is capable of creating.
Jibo: This “ and facial recognition to know who it’s talking to. It’ll play games with children, tell them bedtime stories and snap a photo or send messages to online friends and family. Jibo is under development following a in 2014.
Qualcomm Minion: The battery-powered minion isn’t really a robot, but the from uses Qualcomm’s Always-On Vision Module to interact with people based on what it sees.
LG Airport Guide: Imagine robots gliding around the airport, ready to escort you to your gate — without judging. LG’s will soon be roaming Seoul’s Incheon International Airport and will communicate in four languages: English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Scan a ticket to get necessary airport information plus the weather at your destination.
Sphero Sprk+: Boulder’s own toy robot company Sphero created all sorts of accessories for its round robots. Pictured is the educational in some sort of swimsuit.
Panasonic companion robot: This egg-shaped robot prototype pops up out if its shell to reveal a cyclops eye and twisty neck. According to to communicate. It also has a built-in projector.
