Samsung made another home robot. It's called Ballie, and it's being shown off at CES 2020 in Las Vegas.
Pronounced Ball-E, it's actually a concept, and it reminds us of BB-8 from Star Wars and even a Sphero gadget. It's pitched as a “life companion robot†that "understands you, supports you and reacts to your needs." It has a camera at the front and uses on-device AI to navigate and perform home security tasks. “We see on-device AI as central to truly personalised experiences," said EVP Sebastian Seung said in a release.
In the on-stage demo, Ballie following CEO HS Kim around when commanded. When prompted to say “hi,†Ballie even blurted some adorable beeps and boops. And during a video demo, we could see Ballie interacting with a pet dog. (Ugh, so cute!) But that's about it. From what we can tell, Ballie is essentially a robot that roams your home to watch out for intruders and other signs of movement.
It'll also function as a fitness assistant and “a new mobile interface", apparently. It seems to help control your smart home devices, too. For instance, the video demo showed Ballie calling a robot vacuum to pick up a spill it spotted.
There’s no word when or if Ballie might release. Samsung perhaps wanted us to know the device exists, and it's continuing to explore robotics.