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The Kuri home robot, scheduled to ship its first orders in December, will be able to record video of users each time it sees their face in what maker Mayfield Robotics calls Kuri Vision. Recordings begin after Kuri uses facial recognition to identify the person within its line of vision. Kuri can also be programmed to be active or inactive based on the room in the house or time of day.
Video recorded by the mobile robot will be shared on the Kuri app. Over time, with computer vision and by paying attention to the sorts of videos a person likes or deletes in the app, Kuri learns a user’s preference based on factors like time of day, location in the house, or people involved, a Mayfield Robotics spokesperson told VentureBeat.
For the price of $799, the Kuri home robot can do an assortment of things like play music, livestream video, or alert you when your dog jumps on the couch so you can yell at her though Kuri’s speakers.
This year Kuri has learned a few other tricks, like how to dance when it hears a specific command or automatically driving itself to its charging pad when low on energy.
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Expressions shown by the robot’s plastic eyelids, robotic hips, and glowing LED heart are what Kuri maker Mayfield Robotics calls romojis, and they’re expressions that let you know if Kuri understands what you’ve asked it to do.
Kuri uses lasers for spatial mapping to understand which room it’s in and to avoid running into walls or objects. If iRobot gets its way and sells its spatial data to a tech giant, companies like Mayfield could see competition from companies like Apple, Google, or Amazon.
Mayfield Robotics is owned by German electronics maker Bosch. Another startup created by Bosch, Deepfield Robotics, made a robot that kills weeds on farms.
