Meet Your Pet’s Personal Robot Cameraman
▼ Summary
– Vex is a new autonomous robot companion that follows pets around the home, films them, and uses AI to edit the footage into shareable videos.
– Unlike traditional pet cameras, Vex is a small, handheld sphere designed to capture low-angle footage from a pet’s perspective.
– Aura is a larger companion robot for people, featuring a circular screen and the ability to read human body language and facial expressions.
– Both Vex and Aura, developed by FrontierX, can follow their users and incorporate conversational features powered by large language models.
– The robots are still in development, with no pricing available, but FrontierX plans to open pre-orders within six months.
Keeping an eye on your furry friend while you’re away just got a whole lot more interactive. The latest innovation in pet technology isn’t just a stationary camera; it’s a personal robotic videographer that actively follows your dog or cat to capture their daily adventures. This new device, named Vex, autonomously tracks your pet, films from a dynamic low angle, and uses artificial intelligence to compile the footage into shareable daily video stories.
Unveiled at CES, Vex resembles a small white sphere with attachable, colorful limbs and ears, making it compact enough to fit in your palm. Its primary function is to identify and follow specific pets around the home, engaging with them and recording their activities from a unique perspective. The promise is that the onboard AI will edit the raw clips into coherent narratives, though the manufacturer, FrontierX, has yet to publicly showcase these final edited videos. This editing capability will ultimately determine the product’s real value to pet owners.
Alongside Vex, FrontierX introduced a larger companion robot called Aura. Roughly the size of a soccer ball, Aura features a circular screen as its face and is designed for human interaction rather than pet monitoring. It aims to interpret body language and facial expressions to gauge a person’s mood. Utilizing conversational AI, it can follow users and engage in dialogue, positioning itself as a personal companion.
Both robots are currently in the prototype phase. FrontierX is at such an early stage that it lacks a formal website, operating only a basic Instagram presence. The company anticipates opening for pre-orders within six months, but pricing details for Vex and Aura remain undisclosed. Their development represents a significant step toward more autonomous and intelligent home companions, blurring the lines between passive monitoring and interactive engagement.
(Source: The Verge)
