The Affordable Home Robot of the Future Is Here to Communicate with Your Family Brenda Barron - SnapMunk
go to original April 26, 2017

Take a look around, and you’ll notice that the number of options we have to communicate with one another is growing year after year. Just think about the abundance of chat app options there are.

But as far as we’ve come in closing the physical gaps that separate us from close friends and family, there are still obstacles that stand in our way as we use these newer forms of communication. There’s the tech savviness factor to consider, especially when trying to communicate virtually with older adults. There’s also the inconvenience factor of having to hold or carry around a device as you try to carry on a normal conversation.

California startup OhmniLabs has developed a solution to the problem, and it comes in the form of a home robot - named Ohmni - that people can use in their homes to communicate with others, near or far. This robot has been a work in progress since 2015, has gone through nine iterations, as well as a full-year of beta-testing.

Their IndieGoGo campaign is set to end in May of 2017, at which time they’ll have exceeded their original goal to raise $100,000. The plan now is to make the Ohmni robots available starting this fall.

The idea of bringing a robot into the home for added convenience in chatting with one another is not new. Companies like Beam and Double have previously created a similar product. When asked what makes Ohmni so different from the competition, Jared Go, the co-founder and CTA of OhmniLabs said:

“Driving around Beam and Double and interacting feels a lot like walking around with a neck brace on, which results in unnatural interaction. We studied this and notice in a lot of cases people will bend down or adjust their pose to look flat into screen, because the screen and camera can’t orient to look straight at them. People say that it’s really the moving neck that makes the product feel really human… Being able to emote and nod too really gives the extra oomph to that feeling.”

“Our design philosophy has two main parts, and the first is to maximize the human connection. Ohmni is made to be human height to give you that most natural view of the world… The second part of our design philosophy is to minimize all hassle.”

The movable neck is just the start of creating that hassle-less experience. Setup has proven to be just as convenient, too. All it takes is a quick unfolding of the unit, a click of the power button, and then connecting to Wi-Fi. Although users from the robot’s end cannot initiate calls themselves, all they need to do is grant access to family or friends and accept the call when it comes through. Users can connect by email, Facebook, or Google and then use their computer’s or Android phone’s Chrome browser to connect.

Read the rest at SnapMunk

Related: Here's Why Robots Are Making Income Inequality Even Worse (Mic)

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