Zenbo family robot destroys Computex with cuteness before it even begins
Asus dropped an unexpected robot revolution on its Computex press conference, launching the Zenbo household assistant, priced at $599.
Asus made a surprise home robot announcement today at its Zenvolution press conference in Taipei, Taiwan. After its expected announcements across tablets, notebooks and smartphones, talk of a robot assistant was out of the blue.
The Zenbo is a cute, family-friendly household assistant robot with a huge range of announced features.
Move independently around the house. Recognize faces. Play games with kids. Read stories. Search the web. Assist with recipes. Control by voice command. Take photos. Place phone calls. Run home security and smart home solutions.
In a video and with what looked to be a genuine live demo on stage, the robot was an absolute cuteness overload. It pulled cute faces, rolled around the stage with ease, took pictures of Asus Chairman Jonney Shih with the crowd, answered questions (and failed to answer others quite gracefully, an intended part of the demo).
Asus Zenbo is cuteness personified. But, like, in a robot person.
No release date was announced but it will be priced at $599 (around AU$835 or £410).
In the announcement, Shih called on developers to work with Asus on the Zenbo platform.
"Together we can make Zenbo the best and most practical robot for every household," said Shih. "Together we can work on the next chapter of proactive computing."
You can watch the video introduction and find more details about Zenbo at zenbo.asus.com.
Check out the rest of CNET's Computex 2016 coverage here.