Will This Be the Robot You’ll Love? The Full Amy A1 Review

Technology has slowly introduced robots into our daily lives.  At home, you have robot vacuum cleaners sweeping your floors even when you are not around.  Your car uses sensors to slow down your speed if they detect potential danger.  Some people have cars that drive themselves.

You should not be surprised to see Amy A1 around. Amy A1 is a robot that serves a lot of functions.  Should you buy it?

The Amy A1 brings more features to the table than other personal assistants, telepresence robots, and even speech recognition devices combined.  With the Amy A1:

• You can interact using only your spoken commands. Intelligent language processing is the secret to Amy A1’s success.  It understands you even if you speak in different languages.  It also hears you from far away.  In a quiet environment, the Amy A1 hears your commands from five meters away.  It is also able to detect if you are talking to it even when the TV is on and the kids are fighting.  You can ask it to play music, take a photo, play a video, set the volume, remind you of things, or go with you to the living room.  Furthermore, you do not have to memorize specific commands for it to work.  You can speak naturally and the Amy A1 will know what you want and will do it for you.

• You gain a personal assistant. Amy A1 wakes you up in the morning, and then tells you about the weather while you brush your teeth. You can also ask it about the news of the day as you have your breakfast, and even give you a rundown of your favorite stocks.  It reminds you of your schedule for the day, making sure that you are ready for the day ahead.  What’s more, you can ask it any question and it will give you an answer in just seconds.

• Your faces are instantly recognized. Amy A1 knows the people at home and at the office.  It uses facial recognition technology to know who it is you are interacting with and then knows what that person prefers.  For instance, if your son wants to play music, Amy A1 is going to play his favorite songs.  Or if the person wants to keep track of the latest news, Amy A1 is going to deliver news that are interesting to him or her.

• You can be there even when you are not. If you want to be able to join family gatherings or attend a business meeting while you are far away, the Amy A1 can stand in for you as a telepresence robot.  It has a camera, a speaker, and microphones that allow you to communicate with your colleagues or family members.  You can also control the robot to go from one room to another, so it would feel like you are really there.  Imagine being able to attend a family reunion even when you are caught in a business trip halfway across the world.  Or how about talking to your kids over dinner when you are still at the office trying to beat a deadline?

• Trust Amy A1 to find its way. When placed indoors, the Amy A1 knows where it is and where it needs to go.  You can call it to the kitchen when it is in the living room and it will find its way on its own.  On top of this autonomous navigation capability, the Amy A1 also avoids any obstacles that may block its way.  Additionally, Amy A1 follows you around if you want it to.  You do not have to control it manually, leaving your hands and attention free to do anything you want.

• You can send a message to anyone in the office or at home. The Amy A1 can act as a messenger.  Forget about putting up sticky notes all around the house; Amy A1 relays messages to family members and colleagues accurately.

• You can easily automate your home. The Amy A1 can control your home appliances, allowing you to automate your home.  It keeps the temperature around your home warm or cool enough, depending on how you like it.  It also turns off the lights and arms your security system.

• You can secure your home. The Amy A1 can monitor and secure your home, and it is able to patrol your home on its own.   It sends alarms and notifications to your smartphone if it detects something unusual, and you can tell it to send information to the police.  What’s more, you can check in any time and watch real-time video feeds of what is going on at home.

• You can customize and add more features with the software development kit. The Amy A1’s manufacturers have made an SDK available for its robots, making it possible for owners to create their own functionalities.  The SDK uses Android development environment to allow you to come up with your own programs that will make the Amy A1 more suitable for your needs.  For instance, hospitals can use the SDK to create capabilities such as the Amy A1 making rounds around the hospital, providing patients with updates using telepresence, or reminding patients when to take their medicines.  You can also use the SDK to interact and view the data being picked up by Amy’s sensors.  The SDK can also help connect the Amy A1 to different APIs such as Flipboard, last.fm, IFTTT recipes, and other platforms.  The SDK also brings a level of customization to AMY A1, such as how it dances to music or how it patrols your house.

• You can expect it to learn on its own and add more capabilities. Amy A1 uses the cloud to power its capabilities. This means that it can grow over time and be upgraded continuously.

Other features

The Amy A1 has an HD camera, delivering a wide viewing angle and a 720-pixel resolution.   It also has a 15-volt Panasonic battery that gives you 10 hours of running time.

The Amy A1 also has fast computing resources with an Octo core ARM CPU+4 core Intel CPU, which gives it fast processing capabilities, while also lowering the drain on the battery.  This means that you have a brain that is fast but does not deplete your battery’s juice too much.

Moreover, the Amy A1 uses a range of sensors.  Sensors you can find on the Amy A1 include:

• An infrared distance sensor, which uses IR beams to determine how far objects are.
• Ultrasonic sensor, which uses sound waves to measure the distance between objects.
• Capacitance sensor, which measures the position or change of position of the device.
• Depth camera, the same technology found on your Xbox Kinect, allowing the Amy A1 to have a 3D view of things.
• Inertial measurement unit, which collects linear acceleration and angular velocity data.

What you would like about the Amy A1

The Amy A1 has a lot of features that would justify its $7,000 price tag.  For one, a telepresence robot with a 720-pixel camera and built-in screen can be worth more than $1,000.

Take for example the Padbot P1, which sells for $1,300, or the Beam Pro telepresence robot, which sells for $14,000 – or twice the price of one Amy A1.

Aside from that, the Amy A1 could easily replace other devices around your home.  With the Amy A1, you can do without security cameras to help you protect your home.

Instead of going through the hassles of laying down wires, buying several cameras to adequately cover your house, and worrying about where to place them, you can just let the Amy A1 do the job.  No more dead spots, because Amy A1 can move around to let you see what you want to see.

It can also replace voice recognition devices such as Amazon’s Alexa products.  The Amy A1 can adequately do the job that Amazon Alexa can, bringing you the news and information you need, while also allowing you to control
connected appliances.

Other devices that you can forego include home automation hubs, home security alarm systems, and even smart intercoms.

With the Amy A1, you only have to deal with one device.  One neck to choke, so to speak.  You do not have to learn how to operate different smart devices and you can keep your smartphone in your pocket.  It can be your companion, your personal assistant, your stand-in.

And it can do several functions such as become your own robotic security guard, tell the kids a bedtime story, or even entertain you and your family and friends.

Amy A1: Specifications

My Final Recommendation

The Amy A1 is a self-charging robot that is really convenient to have.  It can make your life easier and a lot more fun.  You can think of it as your secretary, security guard, personal newscaster, and even as a family member or colleague.

What makes it really convenient is that it pretty much works on its own, leaving your hands free to do what you need to do.  It interacts with you and follows your voice commands, so you do not need to constantly have your
smartphone around.

It may be an expensive robot, but you are sure to get a whole lot of value from it.  If you have $7,000 (For the latest prices and discounts, check here) , the Amy A1 would be a good investment!

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