This ‘BB-8-Like’ Personal Assistant Follows You Around At Home
At CES 2020, Samsung unveiled a yellow, tennis ball-like robot named Ballie that can act as your assistant but also your personal companion.
CES 2020 was crazy. Although all the new gadgets and technologies there were very captivating, one technological field dominated — robotics. From emotionally supportive robot puppies to fresh, robot-made pizza, these machines left tech enthusiasts like me curious and starstruck.
However, there was one robot that genuinely caught my eye, not because it’s super-advanced or revolutionary, but because of it’s purpose and AI-integration.
Meet Ballie, the grapefruit-shaped spherical robot from Samsung. It made its big debut on the stage during Samsung’s CES event, appearing alongside H.S. Kim, who leads the tech giant’s consumer electronics unit.
From being your fitness trainer to patrolling your hallways as a security guard, Ballie can do a lot of things. It even acts as your friend or pet (sort of like Anki Vector) by following you around the house using its camera. It can also operate your smart devices around the house like Google Assistant and Alexa.
“It’s Samsung’s vision of a robot as a life companion.”
How Does It Work?
We’ve seen many robots like this in the past, such as LG’s ball robot from 2016, Anki Vector, and Sphero, which have revolutionized technology education in schools.
However, how does it work? It’s actually very similar to other AI-integrated, commercial robots.
According to Engadget, it has a “mobile interface” that uses built-in AI to look for ways to improve your life as your needs and habits change. Think about how you can set routines on your Alexa to do a series of actions at a certain time or command.
Additionally, it uses a camera to recognize its owners, navigate its environment, and avoid blockages and obstructions. It also has two ‘wheels’ on the left and the right side controlled by an axle to move without disrupting the middle section, where the camera is kept in place. The three lights on the front are most likely a battery indicator.
However, Ballie does more than just adjust to your habits. A demo video showed Ballie turning on the TV for a dog, calling a robot vacuum to clean up a spill, and opening smart curtains — Samsung even claims that it can call emergency services if it sees someone fall and not be able to get up! At the CES demonstration, it showed that it could follow H.S. Kim around.
In response to questions concerning the security of Ballie’s data storage, Samsung said it’s held to “stringent data protection and privacy standards.” “Of course we want Ballie to be fun, smart and helpful,” says Sebastian Seung, Samsung executive vice president and chief research scientist. “But we also want Ballie to keep our secrets. We want an AI we can trust.”
“One size fits all is no longer the answer. We are all seeking solutions that treat us as individuals.”
What Does This Mean For The Future?
H.S. Kim envisions the next era of tech will be the “Age of Experience,” where consumers seek out for and get devices that help them do more with their life rather than just buying it because of how new it is.
I can’t wait to see how Ballie will do when it’s available to buy, which Samsung has not yet disclosed. However, I have seen technology like this already, so I am very excited about this, but I’m also a little concerned. Robots like these don’t have immediate success stories — other companies have faced setbacks when trying to sell commercial robots.
Take Sphero, for example. The company just didn’t sell enough toy robots, forcing it to stop making their commercial robots in December 2018 and started making robots for tech education in schools instead. Additionally, the company Anki, who became widely popular for the Vector robot, ran out of money in April 2019, but their assets were later bought by an ed-tech company.
So, will Ballie become an immediate success? I don’t think so, but we’re getting closer to the “Age of Experience” that H.S. Kim mentioned. As we near it, Ballie’s AI will become more advanced and will be able to interact with human emotions and actions. The sky’s the limit for commercial robots like Ballie.
We’re pushing boundaries here, and the advancements we make in the future will certainly change robotics, AI, and ed-tech for the better.
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