Hugo's Hubble cam talks to Alexa and can tell when you're pissed off
Alexa's built into the Hubble Hugo, as is emotional intelligence.
Not only can the Hubble Hugo follow you as you move around the room, but it'll watch your face and try to tell how you're feeling. Complete with Alexa integration, the Hugo is a smart cam from tech startup Hubble that plays music, controls your smart home and keeps track of when you're angry. I got all up his face at CES here in Las Vegas.
Now, I typically don't need a camera to tell me when I'm excited, but this feature of Hugo isn't just a novelty. In particular, it's meant to help you monitor your baby. Hugo can both tell you when your baby starts crying and then automatically play music or turn on a fan. The Hubble cloud also has a few audio books for kids it can play.
Thanks to the Alexa integration, you'll be able to command Hugo to set reminders or alarms, as well as any of the other tricks up the massive sleeves of Amazon's digital assistant.
Hugo has motion detection, an SD card and can spin 360 degrees, so it has the features to function well as a smart home security cam as well as a baby monitor. Since it reads faces so well, it makes sense that it also can tell people from animals, so you won't get an alert if you're away and your pet crosses into view.
You'll be able to store 24 hours of footage on the cloud for free, or you can pay a monthly fee and store footage for longer.
Hugo will be available to help you sort your emotions this summer. The price hasn't been finalized, but the company's reps at CES expect it to fall between $250 and $300 (about £250 or AU$400).
I got a chance to demo Hugo at CES.
During the demo, I was impressed by the novelty. I could see my face on a screen and Hugo would pick up my smiles and frowns and read my emotions accordingly, though I'm not sure of it's ability to track subtlety. Then again, crying babies aren't exactly subtle. However, I'm worried Hugo would lose track if the baby rolls over -- as it seemed to struggle with faces at an angle.