Speculations about Amazon’s home robots

Following the recent projections of Google Nest’s growth, industry analysts have been looking for a spark from Amazon to create a fire. A tiny hiring notice from the company has shaken the home technology market with guesstimates. The online retail giant is speculated to have a secret team working on a years-old project of home robots that may be commercialized as soon as 2019.

Along with strongholds in the fields of cloud computing and e-commerce, Amazon is seen as a tough competitor in the arena of hardware for smart homes. After Google’s parent company, Alphabet, freshly reported Nest to function sufficiently well as an independent subsidiary, there had been no comments from its peer’s side. But it was definitely witnessed with a ramped-up hiring process lately. And, the job descriptions have begun to plant hopes in the minds of the business analysts, for a high-utility home robot.

What are the prototypes expected to be capable of?

Being codenamed “Vesta” after the powerful Roman goddess of hearth, Amazon’s home robots are definitely expected to be capable of boosting its value in the smart home technology market. There have not been any clarifications or announcements from the company’s side. But having hired specialized mechanical, software and principal sensors engineers, the below are a few expectations it has created

A personified mobile Alexa

Amazon’s Echo devices allow you to control the localized areas where they have been set-up. The new home robot is expected to be able to assist you with an increased mobility. They are expected to be able to move around your homes like a self-driving car.

Advanced navigation

The robots might also be programmed with vision-providing software like high-functional cameras powered with a computer vision. These will help your mechanical assistant familiarize your house for itself and thus assist you better.

The concerns

Letting a motorized physical assistant wander around in houses raises a privacy concern which is so far the only heard-of setback for Amazon. The company’s desire to completely allow robots to take over households is given a pause with the worry of a privacy breach. This apprehension, however, is not expected to prevent the adoption of the technology-in-talk. And, details about how the robot will collect data for its functioning and how it will be used by other linked Alexa-powered devices may, in fact, be able to eliminate this fear.

Data from market research indicates that the Echo range of Amazon has a much greater ownership than Google’s Nest home systems. If Amazon comes up with an evolved user experience at this point in time, it may get a good boost leaving its opponent far behind. Will Amazon’s dreams of a ubiquitous presence in homes come true?