Robotemi is adding Alexa to its personal telepresence robot
It'll basically be a rolling Echo Show.
Temi (pronounced "Timmy," I think) is a personal robot with a 10-inch tablet for a head. It can play music and videos, control your smart home hardware and handle other basic assistant stuff, such as ordering takeout. In short, Temi is a friendlier telepresence robot for the home. Today, the company is announcing plans to integrate Amazon's Alexa assistant and, by extension, offer "Echo Show-like experiences" through its LCD screen. Now, Temi already offers video calls to mobile devices and other Temi robots. Echo-enabled calls, however, would increase the number of devices -- and by extension, it's usefulness -- that Temi owners can call.
Robotemi, the company behind Temi, will add the functionality once Amazon releases its Alexa Smart Screen and TV Device SDK. It's not clear, however, if the startup will be replacing its entire operating system, called Temi OS, with the one used by Echo Show products, or merely supplementing it with Amazon services. Adopting the Alexa platform wholeheartedly (including the visual portion, called the Alexa Presentation Language) would, in theory, give Temi access to a larger spectrum of visual 'skills.' And for Robotemi, It would neatly solve the tricky task of persuading developers to create experiences for an ultra-niche platform.
You can pre-order the Temi today for $1,499 in the US. The company expects to ship the first units by March.
