Gatebox Virtual Home Robot Automates Your Home

Robots aren't quite to the point yet where they can live in your home and help you do all the things that you really don't want to do when it comes to keeping house. While physical robots are a ways away, you can get a virtual robot that can help you with home automation. Think about the Gatebox virtual robot like Google Home only with a cutesy animated Japanese girl inside.

Gatebox device is a projection tube and the character is projected inside the tube and you can talk to it. The device can be connected to your home network and allows for automation of some tasks such as turning lights on or off along with other tasks. The character inside the tube is called Azuma Hikari and she has her own website.

According to that website Azuma is 20-years old and 158cm tall. She likes to watch anime as a hobby and her specialty is making fried eggs. She is also listed as liking donuts and not liking insects. Her dream is to help people who are working hard. The virtual character has two voices to choose from. Users interact with the device using their voice and it has a camera mounted on the top. Gatebox links to an iOS or Android app to allow users to chat with her when they are away from home.

The voice app can also have Azuma do things while the user is away from home. Gatebox is 22 x 36 x 52cm and weighs 5kg. The resolution of the projector that creates the bot is 1280 x 720 and the device has stereo speakers. A headphone port is available for private listening.

A number of sensors integrated includes camera, microphone, motion sensor, warmth and moisture sensor, and touch buttons. At launch the only language supported is Japanese and the device is expensive at about $2,600. It will ship in December 2017 and a US version will be offered priced at over $3,000 with shipping.

SOURCE: PCmag