Under the moto “Play”, LG has launched a series of really interesting companion devices along its LG G5 high-end phone. One of my favorites is the LG Rolling Bot, a spherical-shaped robot that can stay home and act as a surveillance robot, or “care” for your pets, according to LG.
The robot work on a known principle of having two hemispheres that can rotate independently, thus making it possible to move forward and turn (like a tank, basically). The Rolling bot has a camera with which the user can see everything the robot sees. This, of course, controlled with the smartphone, over an Internet connection.
The robot should work with non-LG phones as well, but LG handset will benefit from an easier setup, thanks to an app called LG Friends Manager, which takes care of the network setup and other administrative tasks that may put off the novice customer.
The Rolling bot also has a laser pointer and should quickly become your cat’s best friends with endless hours of play (you’ll have to remote control that too, for now). If you have a dog that isn’t attracted by laser pointer hunting, it’s possible to talk with it (or with kids btw…) via the robot, since it has a microphone and a speaker.
I’m not quite sure if the robot is smart enough to avoid stairs, but I’m tempted to believe that LG has thought of that use case. What we do know is that there is a docking station and that the Rolling bot is smart enough to go back to the base for a good charge. At this point, there’s no mention of it patrolling the home, or recognizing people based on their faces, although both would be welcome features at some point.
Filed in . Read more about LG, Pets, Robots and Surveillance.