Ballie is still alive! First revealed at CES 2020, Samsung’s smart-home robot companion made headlines last year with a substantial redesign that made Ballie bigger, packed with AI, and sporting a projector. Samsung has brought the little yellow robot back to this year’s CES with a demo that includes instructing Ballie to carry out tasks via voice commands, including projecting a desired movie, adjusting the projection’s size, and queuing up a list of things to do in Las Vegas. The robot is able to self-navigate thanks two two cameras positioned on the front and rear, as well as utilizing LiDAR and ToF sensors.
While a price has yet to be revealed, Samsung has finally given a release window for Ballie, telling news outlets that the robot will release this year. TechRadar specifically reports that Ballie be made available to consumers during the first half of the year, with support for English, Spanish, and Korean.
“We really wanted to perfect this, making sure it came to market at the right time, with the right features, and the right concept,” Samsung’s Head of Product, Home Entertainment, Lydia Cho told TechRadar. “So that’s why the process took a bit longer, but I think it’s really the right time with us launching VisionAI.”
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The following was originally published January 11, 2024:
Four years ago at CES 2020, Samsung previewed a peculiar spherical home robot about the size of a large orange. Little has come out about the device since then, until this year’s CES, where Ballie has come back bigger and with several new tricks.
Pitched as “the perfect AI smart home companion,” the now bowling ball-sized Ballie demoed several use cases during a video presented by Samsung. The cute robot’s main tool appears to be an integrated 1080p projector that it can use to display data from various smart home devices, like reminding you when your air filter needs to be changed, or showing you the inside of your Samsung refrigerator while you are grocery shopping. Full smart home integration means Ballie can turn on your smart lights while wheeling around the home, and, naturally, it can make and receive phone calls for you as well.
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Ballie leverages AI to communicate with you while you’re out of the house, and can receive instructions remotely to, say, patrol the house, or send you footage of your family pet. Over all, Ballie seems to be positioned as an all-in-one smart hub on wheels. The video showcasing the little robot is impressive, but it is just that– a pre-produced video. Notably, in-person demonstrations of Ballie only had the robot go through a rehearsed routine, so we’ll have to wait to see how it does when it gets into people’s homes. The good news is that it seems it will actually do just that, as Samsung has disclosed that it will be available for purchase by the end of 2024.
