Anki are the creators of some of the most sophisticated toys in the world, their latest creation Vector is about to set the standard in artificially intelligent assistants. Like Google Assistant or Amazon’s Alexa he is designed to listen and respond to voice commands, making your every wish his command.

Vector may be tiny, but he is jam packed full of technology that helps him to be aware of his environment. His four-microphone array can pinpoint exactly where his masters voice is coming from. A HD camera allows Vector to scan the room for movement, recognise faces and snap pictures whenever asked. The built in Infrared laser scanner lets him scan the world around him and build a map of his environment. Unlike his cute cousin Cozmo he has his own SnapDragon chipset onboard making him a fully independent AI assistant that doesn’t require a smartphone to control him. This also means he doesn’t store your information in the cloud like Google or Alexa.

Currently Vector has a limited number of functions besides exploring and interacting with you in cute and funny ways. He is knowledgeable on a variety of different subjects, so you can simply ask him questions and get a helpful answer. Other functions include timer, weather, camera on command and he can even act as a blackjack dealer. The list of functions will expand in the future and anyone with a good idea can jump on Vector’s Kickstarter page and suggest functions. Idea’s such as security camera, music recognition, read news, smart home controller and message delivery are already on the horizon.

However, Vector isn’t purely about functionality, he’s about personality, character. Instead of a bland generic response if this life like Pixar character doesn’t understand a question he gets a little grumpy then shakes and beeps. Modelled off real living animals Anki’s latest gadget combines the smarts of an AI assistant into a cute little electronic assistant that has personality, a whole new type of desktop assistant that can fit in the palm of your hand.

Reference: Anki Vector home page
Reference: Anki Vector Kickstarter page
Reference: The Verge

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