INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Anki is a company that's well versed in robotics
Its diminutive robot Cozmo was a big hit when it was first released a few years back, topping Amazon's best toys list in the UK and the
though, its products put it firmly in the toy category but it hopes to change that with its latest robot, Vector - a smart robot built
"Cozmo was a very sophisticated robot but the primary use was as a toy, for entertainment, to sell to kids."With Vector, the focus is now
not just on entertainment but on usefulness."The strategy at the beginning has always been a bottoms up approach to robotics," says
Google is an 800 billion dollar company, so it is very easy for them to spend 10 years on the autonomous car as a moonshot
So we produce these products and reinvent a category, then grow our capabilities as a team to take on harder challenges in our
robotics."Robot helpersThat harder challenge is Vector
While, at first glance, it looks like a bigger variant of Cozmo, a lot has changed
The robot has been built to be autonomous
Snapdragon, Quad Core 1.2GHz chip that powers the device, meaning that once it's set up, you never need to look at the app again
This power means it can do an array of things: recognise faces, play games, set timers, answer questions and react in thousands of different
ways to its environment."We made Cosmo more effective by pushing a lot of the computational information to the phone - the app was running
assistant does but Palatucci believes Vector has two big USPs that the current crop of Alexa and Google Assistant infused speakers doesn't
"We are trying to create robots where the primary purpose is companionship, but at the same time they can do things that are useful."Robots
in the homeWhile it may not have this functionality from the off, this usefulness comes in the form of the smart home
Where you may have Alexa around currently to turn the lights on, play the music you want, Anki hopes that Vector can offer something
Neither has much personality when not speaking."We are barely scratching the surface with virtual assistant technology
platform."After launch, not at launch, we are looking to do integration with the smart home, things like the ability to turn your lights on
Its ability to look up and look down, the people and face detection
You can put it on patrol and it can send you a notification."On your guardPalatucci sees Vector as your home's guard dog - the German
comparison and shifts Vector away from the entertainment space, but it will still be a hard task for Anki to get people to use Vector beyond
Palatucci is passionate, though, that this will be the case and also about the role robots can play alongside humans to help, not
companion where they are doing something fun and useful
That has what we have been driving towards with this company, all these products taken together have put us on that path."Vector can be
pre-ordered at anki.com from 8 August for 30 days.6jUg425Hns45T6GhpHT9S9.jpg#
