- Title: Self-navigating personal robot aims to be home tech hub
- Date: 3rd September 2018
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (AUGUST 29, 2018) (REUTERS) CLOSE OF DANNY ISSERLES, HEAD OF TEMI NEW YORK OFFICE, CROUCHING DOWN IN FRONT OF TEMI AND TEMI'S HEAD FOLLOWING HIM ISSERLES STANDING UP AND TEMI'S HEAD FOLLOWING HIM MORE OF TEMI FOLLOWING ISSERLES (SOUNDBITE) (English) DANNY ISSERLES, HEAD OF NEW YORK HQ AT TEMI, SAYING: "If I tap this button Temi locks on to my body and face, and it starts following my face and body, it tracks me so I can enjoy hands-free video calls." TEMI FOLLOWING ISSERLES (SOUNDBITE) (English) DANNY ISSERLES, HEAD OF NEW YORK HQ AT TEMI, SAYING: "Temi utilises 16 different sensors all in all. From cliff sensors on the bottom to prevent from falling down the stairs to depth cameras for obstacle avoidance and navigation. But probably the most famous sensor that we use is the 2D Lidar. So, when you turn on the robot it instantly starts mapping its surroundings which gives it the ability to preset locations in your house. So if I'm abroad and I want to read my kid a bedtime story, I can press on my phone 'Bobby's room' and the robot will drive to Bobby's room and I can read him a bedtime story."
- Embargoed: 17th September 2018 16:06
- Keywords: IFA 2018 IFA consumer electronics show robot home robot Temi Temi the personal robot AI artificial intelligence
- Location: BERLIN, GERMANY / UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS
- City: BERLIN, GERMANY / UNIDENTIFIED LOCATIONS
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Economic Events
- Reuters ID: LVA0028W2POWR
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: A robot for the home has long been promised, but so far no commercially released models have really caught on. Hoping to change that, a new robot called Temi puts the user at the centre of its technology by combining all the functions of AI smart speakers with a self-navigating robot that will carry out commands and even follow you around the house.
Temi has 16 sensors including depth-sensing cameras and a lidar system, which uses laser light pulses to build a picture of its environment and detect hazards.
"When you turn on the robot it instantly starts mapping its surroundings," said Temi's Danny Isserles.
"We took a technology that is used mainly in autonomous cars...and we built our own Lidar which is much more accurate and delicate for home use. With the combination of the Lidar and the depth cameras we can actually see socks on the floor and recognise that a puppy is crossing because with the combination of these sensors we have both the map of what it's supposed to look like and we can see what is changing, what is moving."
Temi doesn't have arms to perform any manual tasks, but instead acts as a hub for all household media and communication. It stands 3 feet tall with all the software inside their patented 'Robox' brain at the base.
It is designed to be entirely handsfree with voice-activation controlling all the functions. With a 'head' similar to an iPad or tablet with in-built cameras, Temi can lock on to the user's face and body and follow them about the house. Remotely, a user can call Temi and tell it to go to a certain room in the house.
"If I'm abroad and I want to read my kid a bedtime story, I can press on my phone 'Bobby's room' and the robot will drive to Bobby's room and I can read him a bedtime story," added Isserles.
The company says Temi is more than simply Amazon's Alexa smart speaker with wheels.
"This obstacle avoidance and this navigation technology has never been achieved in home robotics by any company and it's one of the main reasons which makes this robot much more user friendly for the home and office," Isserles said.
Temi's head of business, Yon Rosenberg, said they focused on user interaction with video-calls as they believe this is an area that will see a lot of growth.
"We designed Temi to be the best video machine ever," Rosenberg said.
He added that they worked hard to get Temi as affordable as possible without compromising the technology: "We invested a lot of money in the development in enabling very complex algorithms to run on relatively low-cost hardware."
Temi the personal robot is being previewed at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, which runs until September 5. It will hit the market in October at a cost of approximately $1,500 USD. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2018. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None