Segway Loomo is a rideable robot friend at CES 2018

[MUSIC] Hey, we're back with CNET's live coverage of CES 2018. And I'm about to be joined by a special robot friend from Segway Robotics with Adam Bao, hi, Adam. Hi, Bridget, how are you? What an entrance to make. Yeah I mean, it's as fun as it looks. So first of all. Now what is this? This is a segway, with more. Yeah. Well I'll show you. It's called. Transform. Lumo. There it is. So basically, a segway mini plus. It's got all the capabilities of a segway, but also with AI capabilities. Especially with vision. Okay and it's I see my face in here, is it looking for me? Yeah you wanna say hi to everyone here? All right well. Hey, [UNKNOWN] say hello. Hi CES, I'm ready to rock and role. That's cute, okay so it's basically your typical segue with a personality now, give me the back story here? Yeah absolutely I mean I think it was You know, there's a lot of robots out there, there's robots a home, robots outside. I think the Loomo is probably one of the only robots you can have with you both indoors and outdoors. If you're going out for a venture, going for a joyride, you can bring it with you and you can ride it to the park, for example, and get off. If you're tired, maybe put your bag on top of it. So it can, actually, recognize your face and your body, follow you around. It has facial recognition? Exactly, yeah, so the AI is really focused on computer vision, and it can, first detect your face and your body. It can recognize it, and it can track and follow you. So- What's the point of my Segway knowing who I am? I guess cuz it will just follow me and not someone else? Yeah, I think it was, Segway is an incredible company but this is not just a transportation vehicle. It's a robot companion. So it can do a lot of things. It has increasingly more personality. It's moving. It's moving. Yes, exactly so. I mean we're not trying to do anything in particular, It is actually assessing the environment. Certain things it sees it likes may be you give the heart face, if you move around, if you it will come across to you. I think it likes the folks over there right now. So it will do some really initial basic emotions but I will increase them over time. But [CROSSTALK]. Emotions? You mean like it's got a little buddy personality? Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think when you have mobility, which is a key robotic trait, and you add AI and a vision, but you also add a personality, it makes it really, really cool and really, really fun. More and more so a robot companion than just something that does things for you. All right, give me a little demo of what else it can do. Yeah, exactly. So why don't we try to prove a use case? Let's say you're in like a park or something. And then you can have it follow you, again you're tired. So- So tired of riding my Segway and not walking, gosh I wish I could walk. [LAUGH] Should I go over there? Actually I'll show you, cuz it's quite mobile. All right. It's gonna move around a little bit. So Lumo, follow me. [BLANK_AUDIO] Okay Lumo, follow me, follow me. Okay all right so it sees me. It's following me. It's a bit of a narrow space so let's see what I can do. Can I walk further? Yeah yeah. So it doesn't need to see my face. It can kind of focus on my back as well. So he's kind of locked onto you once he locks onto your face. Yep follow me. [BLANK_AUDIO] Mm-hm, okay. [BLANK_AUDIO] It seems like he's locked onto He is yeah yeah. He keeps facing you okay. Yeah I know exactly right it's pretty cute. So I mean if you have something like this which is quite mobile but also it's smart right? Like it's really cute. You don't want it just to be something that does things for you but you want it to be really helpful. It's basically like a puppy like a puppy segway right? Exactly exactly. So you were telling me it also like has remote control capabilities too? Yes. Through it. Well yeah, exactly. Even in the state right now, you know, it can follow me, it can take pictures, video and pictures, but if I want to control it myself, I can So you can take photos, you can be like you're docum, okay. Yeah, I mean if you're hanging out with your friends, maybe you don't like wanna take pictures all the time. It can take a picture and video of all you guys together, and track your faces and actually position it properly. So you know, no moments go unnoticed. And what about this mode you were telling me earlier about, called avatar mode. Yeah let me show you. Can't find the smartphone. I think our friend over there has got the smartphone. [INAUDIBLE] All right, so You can kinda see through its eyes? Yeah, exactly. So I mean- Let's make sure the camera can see that, okay. So it's an app, but this is one of the features, right? So you're seeing the camera point of view right now of the robot? Yeah, exactly. So you can control it here. This is the motor component And then this is the head swivel. Take video, you can do a bunch of other stuff. Can I use two hands? Yeah. Put this down somewhere. Yeah,yeah. Put the mic down for a second. All right. So let's see. All right. Can it find me? Yeah. So, let's see. Mm-hm. One second. At least when the robots come, we can still control them somewhat. [LAUGH] Okay, I see, is it connected? Hold up, I think the WiFi has a bit of an issue. Actually, one quick second. See, yes, WiFi is always an issue. Yeah, there's a lot of people here. But I saw you do it earlier when we were practicing. There it is, okay. Just a little better, okay, so there it is, I think we're reconnected, sees you ver there right? [BLANK_AUDIO] Okay, so it's a- Hello there, this isn't creepy at all, hi, hi, hi, down, boy, good boy, good boy. [LAUGH] [INAUDIBLE] I was sent from the future. And I guess we're living in the future now. Hi, hi Lumo. All right so got a camera here, camera here. Why are you hiding over there? [LAUGH] It's okay we can be friends. I'll be close. Can I ride this thing? Because that's like the only question I have on my mind this whole time. Yeah, absolutely. I want to ride a robot. Sure. And now I feel like The perfect CSS. Finally we have merged rideable things and robots. Hi, I can even see my face in here. It's looking for me. Yeah. Now you decided not to have like a little cutesy face. I think a lot of robots these days have a cutesy personality face. Yeah. I'm not seeing little eyeballs on this guys. Once it gts to know you it'll recognize you, it'll know you better, and as a friend it'll Give you the hearts, give you the funny faces. So that's the personality component, right? Right now, it's pretty simple overall. But over time, when it gets to know you better, it'll treat you the way you treat it, is one way to look at it. All right, so, while you were talking, this thing just flipped and converted. So yeah, have you ridden these things before? Well, we wrote it for one second before, so let's hope I don't bust my ****. Maybe you can just hold my arm, just in case. Yeah, want me to hold it? Yeah, I'm gonna take your hand, yeah, that's for sure. All right. One foot at a time, okay. Yep. There it is. Okay. You good? Now, I'm gonna go backwards and You're okay, there it is. I'm good, we're good. Yeah, you can pick it up in a cool minute's time, but- I can see you have to be very sensitive with it. I was trying to turn and I turned a little too much, so I have to be very focused with my Jedi thoughts and just think about going forward. Yes. And think about slightly tilting right. I'm using my knee to kinda tilt the center there. This isn't that hard considering I have no balance and coordination skills at all. I have never ridden bikes. That's pretty good. Yeah, not bad at all. I feel like with a day I could totally get this down. Yeah, I think someone like you will take five minutes, or three. [LAUGH] Well thank you so much for showing me this, I really appreciate it. And I'm just gonna ride off with it- Okay. [LAUGH] So thank you for joining us. This has been Lomo, and we're gonna be back With Sony. So stay tuned for CES in the CNET live stage. Woo-hoo! The future. [LAUGH] [BLANK_AUDIO]