The LG Rolling Bot is one of the LG G5’s Friends, one of a number of accessories shown off alongside LG’s new superphone at Mobile World Congress 2016. But this connected toy is destined for greater things.
The little guy rolls along the floor and is able to capture images and videos with an 8MP camera. The IP camera can sync up with Wi-Fi to let you remotely monitor your home when you’re at work or vacation via a live streaming function that will let you see what’s happening in real time from your phone.
Then, the Rolling Bot is a home robot ball. It’s designed to live in your house, connect to your home Wi-Fi network, after which the fun can begin. Once connected, you’ll be able to drive the Rolling Bot around your house using the smartphone as a controller. And yes, you can control it wherever in the world you might be. It should be able to let you remotely do whatever you want as long as the devices can “talk” to each other – like temperature control, turn on your TV, turning on lights and so forth.
The central section of the Rolling Bot carries a camera, so you can see where it’s going. That means you’ll be able to roll it from room to room while you’re away, perhaps to check that the house is ok, spy on the kids, or just to entertain your guests.
But it also contains a speaker and mic, like a security cam, as well as a few special extras, such as laser beams. From the G5, you can view whatever the robot sees and remote control it with a directional pad on the left that will move it forwards and backwards and one on the right that will alternate where the camera is facing by turning it.
All the hardware is placed in the center stripe while the two large hemispheres are the engine that can turn in any direction. It’s tricky to use, so there is a bit of a learning curve. The thing also can’t go incredibly fast, which is probably for the best since it’s already difficult to figure out what you’re doing using just the G5’s display for navigation.
LG isn’t sharing any info on pricing yet, but this is either coolest or most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. I honestly can’t decide. All I know for sure is that it’s Awesome!
