The age where we will each have a personal robot at home, may not be too far away. At its press conference at Computex Taiwan 2016, ASUS took to stage its very own robot cum home assistant called Zenbo.
Zenbo reminds me of the Pixar lampshade, which then inspired the much-loved iMac G4. Only creepier. Its bulbous body has wheels that ferries it around the house, while its curved rectangular head is held up by a metal neck.
A home robot should be cute. In fact it really should be adorable, so the kids will love it. But Zenbo unfortunately isn’t a Wall-E, and comes out more scary-looking than it looks.
It’s worsened by Zenbo’s annoying robot voice, which is miles from ‘adorable.’
If anything, it has the advantage of being to move about, unlike the Google Home or Amazon Echo. It’s unclear what platform or OS it runs but Zenbo can literally do everything the Home or Echo can, and more.
It’s also got a creepier face.
Zenbo manages your connected home, and becomes your personal assistant in your daily life. It’s your kitchen assistant, shopping assistant, family photographer, and it plays music, drops you reminders, and much more.
It moves around the house, ready to assist you in any way. It sees, speaks, hears and ‘learns.’
Want to know more of what little Zenbo can do? Watch the video below. Warning: It’s a little tiring and the entire family is a little ‘strange.’ And by the way, the best actor in the video is Zenbo.
https://youtu.be/Gz5bWCna5uM
Creepy or otherwise, Zenbo makes a home personal robot a reality. Perhaps the execution could have been more human and empathetic, but credits to ASUS for taking the step to give us a taste of the future.
If you think Zenbo is cute and you want him to be part of your family, you can pick one up for US$599/MYR2,464. Want to know more? Visit zenbo.asus.com
Too lazy to read? Watch this video:
