LG's new Hub Robot ties together the smart home
Using Amazon's voice assistant Alexa, it will control LG's smart home appliances, and even dynamically respond to circumstances.
The LG Smart Hub Robot is a long way from showing up in your home. This newly announced gadget is another in the long line of CES 2017 robot companions, but unlike many others, it has a tech giant behind its development.
While that might mean it's final form is more likely to be good, it also means we might not see the little guy come out for quite some time -- perhaps years. LG gave no information regarding an expected release date or pricing.
For now, the LG Hub Robot seems to rely at least partially on Amazon's voice assistant Alexa for skills like playing music and alerting users to weather conditions. But by the time the machine makes it to market, it's just as likely to be running on its own proprietary voice tech.
What's certain now is that it will connect LG's smart appliances around the house, like the oven, robot vacuum cleaner and washing machines. As it spends more time with users, it should learn their patterns and adjust its use of these appliances accordingly.
In addition, the LG Hub Robot features a circular "face" with a screen displaying eyes -- perched atop a softly conical white body. The robot can re-orient itself to face the user and bob along with music it's playing, but it's otherwise stationary. The screen can also display images and videos using some sort of basic web browser.
LG has teased the Hub Robot before, and also announced other home appliances at the press conference, including a smart fridge featuring Alexa and a robot lawnmower.