Asus wants to sell you a robot butler.
At a time when bots, voice-activated virtual assistants, and smart home tech are starting to gain traction, Asus has packed all of those features into robot that can roll around the house to follow you from room.
It’s called Zenbo, and Asus plans to sell it for $599.
Zenbo can move through you house autonomously, use a camera to recognize faces, snap pictures, or let you make video calls, listen to voice commands, or speak aloud to give you voice reminders or other information.
Among other things, Asus seems to be positioning Zenbo as a system that could be helpful for seniors: it can remind you to take medications and recognize if someone has fallen and needs help, and then send a notification to family members’ phones.
It can tap into smart home products, allowing you to control smart lights, thermostats, locks, and security systems with voice commands.
Basically, it’s like an Amazon Echo that follows you from room to room and which includes a camera and a face (which is also a touchscreen).
Asus is launching an SDK and developer program in hopes of helping Zenbo learn to do more things by tapping into third-party software and services.