[CES 2020] Samsung unveils Ballie health home robot and augmented reality glasses

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Samsung held a conference resolutely turned towards the future, or at least towards futuristic use cases, on Monday evening January 6, during CES 2020. The theme was the Internet of Things for the benefit of the individual, and the Korean giant presented a spherical domestic robot and gave a preview of a prototype of augmented reality glasses. He also expanded on his ambitions in terms of smart city, but without revealing a concrete project.

Samsung enters the arena of augmented reality glasses

One of the most prominent announcements was undoubtedly Samsung's teaser on augmented reality. It's no surprise: this heavyweight of consumer electronics is working on the issue, as are Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and many others. It is no more able to release a product in 2020 than the competition, the technology is not yet mature enough, but let it be said: it will be necessary to count with Samsung. It will take at least three years before a first product arrives on the market. The use case presented on stage was a rehabilitation program with a virtual coach (evoking Wii Fit) coupled with the GEMS exoskeleton (acronym for Gait Enhancing and Motivation System). The latter was unveiled last year at CES 2019.

Samsung also quickly returned to the Relúmino project, which had been incubated within the Samsung C-Lab in 2016 and was using a Samsung Gear VR at the time. It is an augmented reality app designed to help the visually impaired read or better understand their surroundings. It is an alternative to specialized solutions on the market, often very expensive and of poor quality. Cho Jung-Hoon, the creator of the project, told L’Usine Digitale that he wanted to develop his own hardware. Samsung said on stage that work is continuing on this goal.

A small spherical robot as the conductor of the smart health home

The main announcement of the event was Ballie, a small spherical ball-shaped robot reminiscent of the BB-8 droid from the recent Star Wars trilogy. Ballie is presented as a mobile domestic companion who fulfills a whole bunch of small roles: interaction with smart health home equipment (television, music, fridge, shutters, vacuum cleaner, etc.), reminders for its owner, fall detection for the elderly , or even entertainment function for pets in the absence of their owner and even sending videos of what is happening at health home.

It is a prototype and its marketing will not be done until at least 2022. Samsung is not the first to be interested in this type of robots (LG, among others, had already tried it), but the manufacturer sees this type of device as a major category of products by 2030. Its vision: a world in which the direct interactions between humans and technology will be transparent, because the devices will anticipate all our needs.

A new smart health connected speaker planned for 2020

Despite more than difficult beginnings, Samsung also still believes in the potential of its assistant Bixby, which it will try to impose thanks to its (very substantial) offer of smart health connected household electrical products. The Korean will not seek to oppose Amazon and Google head-on in this area, preferring to focus on simple and effective voice commands (and which do not send data to the cloud), according to the explanations of Hyun- Suk Kim, president of Samsung's Consumer Electronics division. The spearhead of this ecosystem will be the Galaxy health home Mini, whose release is planned for this year … and this while the Galaxy health home (announced in 2018) is still not marketed.

Julien Bergounhoux

 @JBergounhoux 

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