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Last week Amazon introduced its latest lineup of new tech for the fall. The star of the show was Astro, a personal robot that can help you with tasks around the house. Astro rolls around your house performing tasks and monitoring for safety and security.
Amazon also introduced a slew of other new tech gadgets, in addition to upgrades to existing products.
Astro the Amazon Robot
In what might be a nod to The Jetsons (as opposed to an homage to my dearly departed pup Astro), Amazon named its first household robot Astro. Though The Jetsons’ robot was named Rosie, Astro was the family’s devoted dog.
Astro is the product of Amazon’s Vesta project that had the task of designing a robot for the home. At the event, Dave Limp, Amazon’s Senior Vice president of Devices and Services, explained, “In five to 10 years, we believe every home will have at least one robot.”
This robot comes with three wheels to roll and pivot, as well as a 10.1” HD touchscreen display to show Astro’s facial expressions and allow for video chats. When you speak to Astro, the screen tilts up to indicate it’s listening to you. Astro emits beeps, bleeps, and boops, as you would expect, when it interacts with you.
Astro also comes with a security camera complete with a periscope. You can raise the camera up to counter height to view what’s happening.
This video from Amazon introduces Astro:
What Astro Does
Astro is part robot and part home security system. This device, like many other Amazon devices, works with Alexa.
When you set up Astro the robot maps your house, including the furniture, to avoid bumping into things. Astro can learn the names of the rooms in your home. You can tell Astro to go to the living room and it will go there and even can bring something such as a beer or soda in its cupholder.
Set areas of your house as off-limits for Astro, to avoid the robot falling down the stairs or going into places you’d rather have Astro avoid.
You can ask Astro to follow you and it will roll behind you around the house. Astro can play podcasts, music, and videos and follow you as move between rooms.
Astro can automatically return each night to its charging station so you don’t have to remember to charge another device.
The screen can be used for video calls and Astro can follow you around the house during your video chat.
For privacy, you can turn off Astro’s camera and microphone with the press of a button.
The periscope camera can be used to check the house when you’re away. Raise the camera to check to see whether you turned off the stove or unplugged the curling iron after you’ve left home.
If Astro detects an intruder or hears a suspicious sound when you’re away, you can get an alert on your phone using the Astro app.
You can then watch a live stream video in the Live View section of the app to check what’s going on around your home.
Check out => How to Turn Your Echo Show Into a Home Video Monitor in a Few Easy Steps
Astro comes with a free 6-month trial subscription to Ring Protect Pro that works with the robot “to schedule patrols while you’re away, proactively investigate detected events, and automatically save video clips in Ring’s cloud storage. The subscription also lets you save and share video clips and review up to 60 days of video history.”
Amazon warns, however, that Astro cannot go down or up stairs.
Availability
Astro is a part of Amazon’s Day One program where the company introduces new products by invitation-only at reduced prices. That’s right, if you want to pre-order Astro at a discounted price you need to be invited by Amazon.
If you get an invitation, you’ll be able to pre-order Astro for $999.99. If you wait to read the reviews or don’t get an invitation, you’ll pay $1499.99. Amazon should start shipping Astro later this year.
You can request an invitation for Astro from Amazon on the Astro Day One page.
Read more about Amazon Day One at => Amazon Wants You to Help Decide Which Alexa Products It Sells Next
Other Tech Announced by Amazon
Astro wasn’t the only new tech announced by Amazon last week. The company also announced other new devices, new Alexa features, and upgrades to existing devices.
Echo Show 15 — Amazon announced a mega-Echo device called the Echo Show 15. This latest Echo Show model has a 15.6 in (40 cm) screen that can rest on a counter or be hung on the wall vertically or horizontally. Arriving later this year, the Echo Show 15 will cost $249.99.
Widgets for Echo Show Devices — You’ll soon be able to add custom widgets to the bottom of the screen on some Echo Show devices. Sample widgets include order tracking, sticky notes, calendar, recipe ideas, and more.
Ring Security Drone — Amazon calls this new device Ring Always Home Cam, but it’s a drone that can fly around your home as a security monitor. This drone flies along custom flight paths in your home and has a light to continue monitoring in the dark.
Like Astro the robot, the Ring Security Drone is available by invitation only. You can find out more about Amazon’s Ring Security Drone and request an invitation at the Ring Always Home Cam page.
Amazon Glow — This new device designed for children comes with a screen and a projector so children can video chat with an adult while playing games or reading books. The projector displays a game or activity that the child can participate in with an adult interacting with them via the screen.
As with Astro and the Ring Security Drone, Amazon Glow is available by invitation only. To learn more about Amazon Glow and request an invitation, check out the Amazon Glow page.
Visual ID — Amazon will soon be introducing Visual ID facial recognition for some Echo devices and Astro the robot to customize your interactions. With Visual ID, these devices will be able to recognize you and respond according to your personal settings.
Visual ID is optional to set up and Amazon says your facial profile will not be sent to other devices.
Your Thoughts
Do you like the idea of having a household robot? Do you think most households will have a robot in five to ten years? What other new Amazon tech is interesting to you?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
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George and Astro Jetson image (edited) courtesy of Mark Anderson via Flickr and Creative Commons
Rosie Jetson image (edited) courtesy of James Vaughan via Flickr and Creative Commons
Hi Carolyn
Wow, my very own personally robot. I just gotta get me one of these, but maybe I will wait to the price drop a bit. Thanks for sharing Carolyn.
Hi Thomas, Excellent point. The price of robots may drop significantly in the future, even though the price of Astro will rise after pre-orders close. Seeing the reviews of Astro after it’s launched will be interesting!
Technology is getting scary enough haha This is a great post, thank you for the info!
Hi Paula, Yes, some of the videos of robots doing things like running, jumping, and dancing bring up visions of Black Mirror episodes. Astro isn’t that sophisticated yet, but this is version 1.0. Will future robots in our home be something to fear?
Such an incredible robot, no doubt in 10 years time, every home will have at least 1 robot.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Iboi, That may very well be the case. 20 years ago it would have been hard to imagine that we would have smartphones and tablets but here we are!