text: Companion robot Kuri is the cutest! – ZO3 Tech
  In this decade of technological advance, we have seen some very amazing AI. Be it an app that converses with you like a friend or a full fledged robot to play your music or an artificial dog that can play with you, we've seen it all. We even have an AI robot with her own Twitter account now! And more are on their way. Kuri is one such AI bot, which has been in market since December 2017.
  Kuri is a small, cute and friendly companion robot. You can use it for various chores around the house, including surveillance. Infact, it first started out as a surveillance robot by its creators, the roboticists Kaijen Hsiao and Sarah Osentoski. But they felt its uses were short lived and added in new features.
  Its lively and extremely cute design have won hearts almost at first glance! The first thing you notice about Kuri are the adorable eyes. Due to the fact that she doesn't have hands, her usefulness seems limited. But it can truly do a few awesome things. For a robot without arms, Kuri's got a lot going for it.
  It can navigate bumps with surprising ease.
  It can play music on command.
  Using machine vision, it can recognize different members of the family, including pets, and automatically shoot video (a feature known as Kuri Vision).
  You can remote-control Kuri too (with an app on your phone)!
  Kuri has built in mapping sensors that allow it to navigate around the house. It maps your entire house – the stairs, the rooms and different surfaces. These route maps help it to move around the house from one room to another. But Kuri can't climb or descend staircases and it is quite heavy to carry it yourself.
  Since Kuri can't speak—at least, not in what we'd identify as a human language—it communicates with clever cues. A beep means yes and a bloop means no. This definitely makes it cuter!
  Kuri's creators call it a "companion robot". It belongs to an intelligent class of machines that make themselves useful assistants at home. You can see them helping disabled or old people, helping you with chores around the house and entertain the kids, all the while keeping an eye on the house.
  Kuri's features
  What we know from Kuri's owners is that it is equipped with touch sensors that enable it to respond to touch, a camera that takes wide range HD pictures and videos for surveillance as well as recording memories, a microphone that detects your voice commands and other sounds around the house, and speakers with high quality sound that can fill a room.
  Kuri has an effective drive system that consists of efficient rollers for it to move around and a familiar heart light that conveys its mood. It comes with its own charging pad that it needs to be plugged in to every night to regain juice, sync and relax – so when we're sleeping, Kuri takes its rest too. The company says it has 3 hours of battery life and drives itself to its dock when it needs to charge.
  Kuri has its own app (both iOS and Android) that can be used to power it up, send manual commands, set preferences, update its system and disable it. It is here you can find all the memories that Kuri captures and stores away, you can further store them on your preferred digital devices. You can configure speech recognition too here to use voice commands. Also, when you are out of the house, this app helps you check Kuri's surveillance and know how things are at home when you're not around.
  If we think about it in the most basic way and look at Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, we can see that Kuri isn't the least bit harmful. Since its physical interaction, it cannot knock things down or accidentally hurt you. Its lack of useful speech also forms the impression of a basic purpose robot and not as advanced AI. You can even isolate Kuri to a specific part of the house, so it doesn't intrude your personal space.
  But will all this be enough to make people want Kuri, is a big question. There is going to be a range of home AI robots, says Andra Keay, the managing director of Silicon Valley Robotics. "However, I believe people would want to limit the number of personalities they want in their houses," Keay says. "So the race is on to create not just engagement but loyalty. That's a real challenge."
  Last December when Kuri was released, it stole hearts but came under questioning regarding its limited usefulness. The price for this robot is 700$ which seems huge considering its lack of ultra features. Although it has higher ground being a companion robot, there are many robots out there achieving more than what Kuri can. For a price tag that great, it would be right to expect more features. Say smarter home integration or more voice commands.
  You can know more about this robot and the team behind its making, and also reserve one here: https://www.heykuri.com
  Related Topics:#technology2017 releaseAIandroidartificial intelligenceasimovbeepbotschirpcompanioncompanion robotcute robotGadgetsheart lighthelp for disabledhousehelpinnovationinventionioskurikuri visionmicrophonenew in 2017patrolplaymaterobotssensorsspeakerssurveillance