The Robots of CES Asia

At CES Asia we’re exposed to innovation, gadgets and concepts. As expected though, we found robots. Lots and lots of robots. Many are just driving around in a small space, some are rogue and driving all over the show and some are singing and dancing. Some robots want to be your friend, others want to be your butler and some want to be your pet. Here are some of our “favourites”:

Robot Bin

This is exactly what the title says, it is a robot bin. It can move around, see you, face you and beg for your rubbish. It has a gaping hole in the front that follows you and tracks you just begging to be fed some garbage. It spoke to me but in a language I couldn’t understand.

Robot Dog

This little “animal” is a robotic dog, it is touch sensitive in most places and will react accordingly. It loves a scratch under the chin and a pat on the side gets the dog up and excited. The eyes are replaced by a phone sized screen with interactive eyes and a display for other apps. It will also speak to you and you could ask it questions, again, in a language we couldn’t understand.

Robot Waitress

This young lady was as tall as a 13 year old and should not be working. Instead, the maid is designed for restaurants and bars. The face leaves a lot to be desired but the chest shows a tablet for ordering your food or beverage. From there it should run to the bar or kitchen, load up on the item and then drive back to you, murmur some niceties and you take your meal or drinks. This is almost a good thing.

Robotic Mannequin

As if a mannequin wasn’t already not a human, making it robotic would surely help right? Well, this particular model is robotic so it can adjust and display ANY body type. What that means is the various dimensions of the body can expand, lengthen, shorten and contract to mimic all the body types. The arms can extend, the waist can shrink, the breasts can grow, the stomach can protrude and even the legs can be adjusted. For fashion retail this means one mannequin to show your outfit in any style.

Robotic Child Companion

Real friends for your kids is such a hassle. They need to eat, somewhere to sleep and need permission for slumber parties. This child sized robot will be your son or daughters best friend. It has cameras for eyes so it will know who it is looking at and also listen to your commands. It has a screen at the front too for when you want to hear Let it Go from the movie Frozen while the robot dances. It can also be used to do the bed time reading, answer questions, follow you around and so much more. It is absolutely the creepiest one on the show floor. It resembles a small child, has no mouth and responds to touch. We saw a man scratch the robot on the back and the robot laughed and moved around like it was being tickled. We wish this was a joke.

Build Your Own Robot

This might be the most useful of the bunch. For young kids or anyone wanting to get into robotics, the Ironbot Kit comes in a box full of pieces. Plenty of motors, bits of steel, screws and wires are all in the box ready for you to build your first robot. The head is your smartphone and with an app allows you to command and control your built robot. The more we think about it, the more we like it. When it dances it does so rather well, just make sure you don’t forget any pieces…