With LG announcing its own AI-powered mobile smart home hub before CES, it was only a matter of time before the company’s closest competitor Samsung did the same, announcing a new version of Ballie, enhanced by AI technology, alongside a plethora of other news.
First introduced at CES 2020, Ballie is getting major upgrades that turns the robot into an AI companion that can control smart devices and even project images and videos on walls to give users key information like weather or other content, the company says.
According to Samsung, Ballie is designed to be a personal home assistant that autonomously navigates the home to complete various tasks.
The device connects to and manages home appliances and learns from users’ patterns and habits to provide a more intelligent and personalized service. The mobile smart home hu can send video updates of pets or family members to mobile devices when away from home, play music and answer phone calls.
In fact, a promotional video shows Ballie sending a user video updates on her dog, who appears to be making a mess in the house. The user instructs Ballie to feed the dog by interacting with what appears to be a smart dog food dispenser.
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Ballie is also seen controlling lights and HVAC systems upon the user’s return home, even greeting the user at the front door.
In another example, Ballie projects a user’s video call onto a home office wall. Another clip shows Ballie acting as the user’s personal workout assistant, projecting a workout video on the wall.
According to Samsung, Ballie automatically adjusts the projected image based on the wall distance and lighting conditions. Samsung calls Ballie the first projector that can automatically detect a user’s posture and facial angle to adjust the projection angle.
Last month in the days leading up to CES 2024, LG introduced its own mobile smart home AI agent, a two-legged, wheeled robot that navigates the home independently and verbally interacts with users using multi-modal AI technologies, combining voice and image recognition along with natural language processing.
Like Ballie, LG’s device features a built-in camera, speaker and temperature sensors.
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