LG's latest robot vacuum, known as theHom-Bot Turbo+, will have an impressive set of features, includingremote camera capabilities and the ability to use your smartphone toselect areas most in need of a clean. The device will be on show atCES 2016 next month.
Nowadays, there's a wealth of choicewhen it comes to robot vacuum cleaners, with new products arriving thick and fast in 2015. We've seen several new units unveiled in the last few months, including thesmartphone-controlled Neato Botvac Connected, the Wi-Fi-connected Roomba 980, and the bObi pet, which is great for dealing with, you guessed it, pet hair.
At the core of any decent robot vacuumis its navigation software, and it's no different for LG's latestlittle machine helper. The Turbo+ is powered by a dual core CPU, anduses intelligent Robonavi software to move around the room and avoidobstacles such as table legs and stairs.
In order to do so, the system has to beable to see where it's going. It's fitted with a triple camera setup, allowing it to record the surrounding area, including theceilings above it, keeping track of where its been and where it's yetto get to.
Those cameras are also used to providea home security feature known as Home-Guard, and a remote controlability called Home-View. The former is designed to automaticallysend still images to the users' smartphone if movement is detectedwhen they're not at home, while the latter transmits a real-timefeed, allowing for remote control vacuuming from practically anywhere.
You might think that's already a fairlyimpressive feature set, but LG has one more trick up its sleeve –an augmented reality feature called Home-Joy. It allows users to makeuse of their smartphone camera to select areas of a room that needparticular attention, tapping on a location to send the robotscurrying off to get started.
There's no word yet on the pricing oravailability of the Hom-Bot Turbo+, but it will be on show at CES 2016early next month, where Gizmag will be on the ground.
Source: LG
Come on really, no mention of how expensive this device is, but those little whiskers are not going to clean into the corners, but at least the loo$er on the smart phone on the other end can maybe see the mess left behind. The "Warning "Home guarded by robot vacuum cleaner" sends fits of laughter rather than fear. Besides stuck under the bed with a dead battery, or lying at the foot of the basement after being knock down by the cat, this usele$$ toy is marketing hype at it's finest...
Also a vacuum cleaner isn't going to taze or handcuff an intruder but it could photograph them. Imagine being away from home and your home security system reports something strange. You connect to the vacuum cleaner with your smart phone app and look around the house with the camera.
You could use it as telepresence to check on pets too. It's probably still expensive but costs will drop eventually. Many of these features could be built on top of basically a Roomba with a $5 Raspberry Pi and a couple additional sensors.