Amazon launches a privacy-preserving robot called 'Astro'

Author | Tian Bagong

According to Leifeng.com, Amazon recently launched a privacy-protecting robot called "Astro". This robot can capture every corner of the house, make video calls with you, and recognize the identities of different people based on their faces.

Astro's face is a regular tablet computer, and users can issue commands by swiping, tapping or using voice control.

The tablet displays a pair of eyes, making it look more like a robot. Amazon's smart assistant Alexa is also built into Astro, so users can chat with it as they please.

It is understood that Astro can investigate people and pets in the room in real time with the user's permission. If it detects someone breaking in or an accident, Astro will immediately send a notification to the owner. During this period, it will connect to Amazon's monitoring product Ring to save video content.

So when can we buy this product?

Currently, Amazon says that only those who accept invitations are eligible to buy Astro, and the price is $999. At the same time, Amazon has opened pre-orders for indoor ring camera drones.

Astro will use deep neural learning methods to draw anchor points of the user's residence, so that users can prohibit Astro from entering private places such as bedrooms by setting out-of-bounds areas.

In fact, Amazon learned to expand its surveillance business in interesting ways a long time ago. For example, American police are using Ring home surveillance systems, and Astro can provide video patrol information for police.

It is worth mentioning that some foreign media have begun to question Astro's stability, saying that it will fall from the second floor, and that Astro may also become the biggest privacy loophole. You should know that Astro is also equipped with a telescope that can be extended. Some people even said bluntly: "It's just a camera on wheels."

One engineer who worked on the Astro robot project called the launch of the robot a "disaster" that was not ready for release. Another said it was "terrible," and he thought Astro's accessibility features (Amazon's promotion that Astro can help take care of the elderly) were "ridiculous and nonsense."

To many, Astro will seem like just a novelty — in fact, it's already been compared to robotic "pets" like Aibo.

But Astro doesn’t solve any particular problem. Rather, like Facebook’s Ray-Bans, it’s about dispelling an underlying concept: getting people used to having mobile cameras in their homes. Astro isn’t a home robot, it’s a camera on wheels, and that’s exactly what Amazon wants.

Leifeng.com compiled from:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akgbbe/amazon-unveils-astro-a-privacy-nightmare-robot-that-follows-you-aro und