Wave and say hello to the Asus Zenbo robot

If you’ve been yearning for something akin to BB8, the sassy sphetical droid from the recent Star Wars movie, you’ll be inordinately pleased with what Asus has to offer. Unveiled at their Zenvolution press conference at Computex in Taipei, the Asus Zenbo is a knee-high spherical shaped robot that rolls around on wheels with an oval-shaped display on an armature that acts as a face for the Zenbo.

The little robot is able to follow you around, make and repeat verbal reminders of important events in your calendar, offer video calls and act as a remote video feed, play music and it displays a saccharine sweet series of emotions via the face cum display. The remote video feed ability looks handy for home security purposes as well as something useful for those who need regular monitoring like the infirm, the sick, children and the elderly.

The Zenbo has a bunch of children-friendly integrated educational materials like songs, games and the like built-in to keep the wee ones distracted for awhile as well. This is all heady stuff, especially since it costs US599 (RM2,463) which makes it relatively accessible for most households.