Mayfield, Bosch’s interior startup, has made its smart home robot ‘Kuri’ more powerful by adding facial recognition and IFTTT support.
Kuri was introduced first at the Consumer Electronics Show 2017 as a warmer robot because it has personality traits. It’s 20 inches tall and 12 inches wide, and embedded with asynchronous motors, a touch sensor, microphones, speakers and an HD camera.
Before the robot officially meets the market, there are both hardware and software updates to the machine.
Firstly, Kuri can recognize people around it by listening to their voices and looking into their faces. According to the startup, the robot can recognize the user as the primary person and show a smile in their interaction. Also, it can recognize family members and tell who’s a visitor.
Speech recognition and natural language command support is also added. This is expected to bring some entertainment value when users talk to the robot. For example, saying “Kuri, I love you” will trigger the robot to do dancing and light show, while giving the “go to sleep” command will render the robot to standby mode.
Moreover, IFTTT support is also coming to the robot. Since Kuri is connected to Wi-Fi, it may serve as an interface to control other connected home devices. For example, when Kuri is switched to the security guard mode, Philips Hue lights will be turned on; or when Kuri leaves the front door, it will be secured by a smart lock.
Mayfields is also updating the hardware, including a redesigned speaker to give the robot a louder voice and convex-shaped eyes re-engineered to make the robot look more lifelike.
The company is accepting per-orders for Kuri, priced at US$699. However, the product will not meet the market until the holiday season this year.