Hoverboards have had quite a lot of bad press lately given that they have been banned left, right and center. It’s not that everybody that’s making them is making defective hoverboards, it’s just that the market is flooded with substandard products that also happen to be at risk of fire. Nevertheless, Intel showed off something very cool at CES 2016, it’s a hoverboard that it has built with Segway, but this one is also capable of transforming into your robot valet.
For this purpose Intel has partnered up with Xiaomi and its portfolio company Ninebot that’s made this Segway, it’s like any other self-balancing personal transportation device, meaning that you can ride it as you would normally do.
When not needed the robot’s head retracts into the cylindrical body, it just comes back up when required. It’s powered by Intel’s Atom processor and features the company’s RealSense ZR300 camera.
The robot is capable of navigating around the home without bumping into anything, stream live video and follow the user on command. For example, it can be programmed to go up to the front door if it’s opened and stream back video to show who is entering the house.
This is an open platform so it’s compatible with different hardware modules and isn’t limited in terms of use cases. During the announcement a pair of arms were attached to the robot which recognized them and responded: “Are those my arms?” “Awesome!”
Segway is going to release a developer kit for this robot hoverboard in the second half of 2016. Developers will be able to come up with new applications and use cases for this robot so that it’s able to do so much more when it eventually makes its way to the market.
Filed in . Read more about Hoverboards, Intel, Segway and Xiaomi.