And a robot that can pour you a glass of wine...
It’s just not CES without robots, and Samsung always delivers on this front. This year the Korean electronics giant debuted three new home bots on the virtual show floor and, surprisingly, at least one of them will actually be available to buy this year.
Okay, so it’s a robot vacuum, but it’s a very smart robot vacuum.
While the Bot Handy with its robotic hand and Bot Care with its intelligent intuition may be the new Samsung bots closest to The Jetson’s Rosie the Robot housebot we all know and want in our homes, the Jet Bot 90 AI+ has some impressive features.
Along with self-emptying (into Samsung’s new “Clean Station”) and laser-based LiDAR, Jet Bot also has a camera onboard, AI-enhanced object recognition tech, and a 3D sensor.
All combined this lets this vacuum robot identify the objects it needs to avoid, from cables to toys, as well as recognize the shape of your room to more effectively manoeuvre around it.
Also, it will avoid poop – judging by this carefully worded line in Samsung’s press release: “If anything is classified as dangerous or likely to cause secondary contamination, it will simply avoid the object.”
The most intriguing feature Samsung showed off in its CES press conference was the Jet Bot acting as a pet monitor, using its camera to monitor activity and even feed your pet via a SmartThings Pet (a robot pet feeder). Sadly, SmartThings Pet is currently only available in Korea.
The Jet Bot can be controlled by Samsung’s SmartThings app for home monitoring through the camera, mapping, scheduling, and setting virtual no-go zones.
The other home robots Samsung showed off were Bot Handy, a robot designed to be an extra hand around the house – Samsung showed the former actually loading the dishwasher and laying the table.
Using AI it can discern different objects, their size, shape, and weight and know how to pick them up. It’s also smart enough to know how to pour a glass of wine for you – which is really the most crucial attribute in any household robot.
The other home bot is Bot Care – this is sort of an Alexa on legs, a robotic assistant that can respond to your needs and even learn your schedule and habits and help you as you go about your day.
Like telling Bot Handy to go get that glass of wine at 5pm.
Both these bots are conceptual right now, whereas JetBot90 AI+ is scheduled to come to the US in the first half of 2021. Pricing is still TBD.
Samsung brings smarts to your chores
Meanwhile, Samsung’s bringing AI into your laundry room, with two new, super sleek looking appliances.
The 8800 series, Smart Dial washer and dryer use artificial intelligence to learn how you use your machines and offer up your preferred cycles and settings on laundry day. No more fumbling with clunky digital displays.
The machines will also recommend settings and cycles based on past choices you’ve made on particular days of the week or at specific times, and the dryer automatically adjusts drying time based on how wet the clothes are, making sure they’re actually dry when you open the door.
Read this: Living with Samsung’s smart fridge
Also, if you stack them, the control panel is smart enough to know this and you can control the dryer right from the washer, so no need to get a step stool out to reach the controls.
Both machines connect to the SmartThings app to remotely start or stop a cycle and get alerts when your load is done.
From the smart laundry room to the smart kitchen, a feature to help with meal prep that has been available in the flagship Family Hub refrigerator is now coming to non-smart fridge owners.
SmartThings Cooking – a service that recommends recipes to you based on your likes, restrictions, and what you have on hand and builds weekly meal plans to match – is now available directly in the SmartThings app.
Through the app you can shop directly for ingredients from places like Walmart, Kroger, Instacart, and Amazon Fresh, get guided cooking instruction, and have cooking temps and times sent directly to your Samsung smart oven.
