Samsung’s Ballie is an adorable AI robot that looks like a tennis ball and controls your home
Samsung has announced a lot at CES 2020. However, a small spherical robot that’ll follow you around and control your smart home wasn’t something we expected to see.
During Samsung’s keynote conference at CES 2020 it announced Ballie – this is an adorable ‘robot’ that looks a bit like a cricket or tennis ball. Ballie can follow you around, record special moments and, according to a demo video, help clear up after your pets. What more can you ask for from an AI assistant?
Ballie has a camera for recognising you, what looks like a USB-C port on the back (for charging?) and it’ll roll around making ‘bleeps’ and ‘bloops’ that would make R2-D2 and BB-8 jealous. I think I want to take one home with me right now.
#Ballie is part of the next evolution of #IoT – patrolling your home, acting as a #fitness assistant, and acting as a remote control for the smart devices in your home. #CES2020 #SamsungCES2020 pic.twitter.com/u1Phkpy3Eb
— Samsung US Newsroom (@SamsungNewsUS) January 7, 2020
But cuteness will only get you so far and Samsung has built a lot of AI skills into this little guy. For instance, a Ballie demo video showed the robot recognising a dog knocking over a bowl of cereal and as a result Ballie knew to enable a robot vacuum to come and clean up the mess. A niche issue yes, but clever nevertheless.
Samsung said it can act as a fitness assistant too and it will be able to connect to other smart devices in your home. The fitness features sound interesting, even if Samsung didn’t really go into how this will work – just that it’ll get you moving even if you’d prefer to just stay on the sofa.
Samsung seems like its positioning Ballie as an extra member of your family and it can use its inbuilt camera to capture ‘special’ moments, recognise your pets and more.
No pricing and release details were given during the keynote address, however we’ll update this story when we know when it’s available and how much this cute little AI robot assistant will cost.
This is a developing story
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
