Month: October 2017

Over the next few months, temi’s EAP community is going to take an important part in shaping the future of home robotics. Our Early Adopters are going to be the first to test out temi in their homes and provide real feedback about their experience.

So, what is the EAP?

After passing the tests at our Research and Development center and in our own homes with flying colors, temi’s Early Adopters Program will be the last phase before releasing it to the public. People across the US will get temi for a week to try it out in their own homes, with their families, friends and colleagues and share with us their thoughts and impression of temi.

Real life user experience is a critical factor in making a great product even better.  Based on our community’s feedbacks and ideas, temi will go through a round of upgrades and improvements to make it the ideal personal robot. Even the smallest idea can make a big difference!

Our EAP Community:

Over 17,000 people have already signed up from all parts of the country – busy families, high tech influencers, celebrities, elders and youngsters – all of them shared their stories and told us why they want temi. Temi thanks you all.

Here are some stats about our EAP community:

73% of the people who signed up are male

65% of the community is between the ages of 24-40

35% of the community is high-tech influencers

22% have kids and a busy family life

16% are business owners

11% are developers

7% want temi to help an elderly person in their family or a family member with a disability

San Francisco, Seattle and NYC have the most EA’s

But for us, the EAP is not just about the numbers, it is about the stories

Stories like the family from Michigan whose children moved out and are now living in New York City, San Francisco and Paris. They believe temi could help them improve their connection with each other.

A marine officer, positioned overseas, wants to use temi in his home in Ohio in order to be able to read a bedtime story to his son and take part in family dinners even when he is away.

An elderly couple that are struggling with their home technology and hope that temi can help them connect with their loved ones and assist in their everyday life.

A mom of five who feels temi will be a great entertainer and educator for her children, hopes it will get them up on their feet instead of staring at a screen all day.

And there are many more. Hearing your stories and thoughts about temi truly impacted us. It strengthened our belief that temi can make a real difference in people’s lives. We feel inspired to continue to improve temi.

We are working very hard to bring the temi experience to each and every one of you. Here are the latest updates about the program:

Due to the high demand we decided to expand the program

When we started, we expected 1000 early adopters – we got over 17,000 great submissions. This is great news for temi, and we decided to accept as many early adopters as possible. We plan to start in the big cities and reach more and more early adopters in the next year. In addition to the EA’s that will get temi to their homes, our early adopter’s community will be invited to our private showrooms and events and will be the first to try a beta version of temi’s UI and Smalltalk. We can’t wait to meet you all and hear what you think.

The first early adopters will be notified in by the end of the year.  

We plan to bring temi to their homes at the end of 2017. The early adopters will get to try temi, and share what they think – we can’t wait to meet them.

All of the EAP community will get to see the insights and experience with temi at our blog and on our social media pages.

How will it work?

If you are chosen, we will contact you directly and you will sign a release form with your confirmation to try temi. After you confirm, a representative from our company will schedule the delivery with you. During your week with temi, you will be able to contact your support rep. directly through WhatsApp, Facebook messenger or by phone for any questions or support. At the end of the week the representative will come to your home and collect your feedback – you will not be asked to fill out long forms, just share your experience and ideas to improve temi.

How will we choose the early adopters?

We are currently compiling a diverse list of candidates who share our passion for ground breaking technology and our desire for a personal home robot. We are looking for people who would provide us with extensive feedback and great inputs, and will help our efforts to perfect temi before its release to the public.  *Participants must be US residents and over 18 years of age.

Don’t worry, if you haven’t been notified in November you still have a chance to be an EAP.

During 2018 we plan to add more and more early adopters and we hope to meet you all in your homes and give you a chance to test temi out for free for a week. We will also meet you on roadshows, at our showrooms and in our upcoming New York City and San Francisco concept stores.

See you soon!

Want to be the first to meet temi? Join our Early Adopter Program

Integrating artificial intelligence with movement, Temi is an autonomous tablet on wheels by Roboteam. Danny Isserles, the vice-president of marketing, explains why it will help to counteract loneliness in the digital age.

What is Temi and what functionality does it have?
When we envisaged Temi we were seeking a new way to connect. Temi is a device that connects your two worlds, the virtual and the physical. Instead of walking around at home with your smartphone all the time, you have a device with all the technology you use all day every day interacting with you. Your technology serves you instead of you serving it, as you don’t have to approach anything, everything comes to you. It’s a step up in your lifestyle.

What inspired the design?
When we thought about the design, having observed a lot of other robots, the first thing we knew was that we didn’t want it to be humanoid because it would be creepy and we also didn’t want it to be cute with blinking eyes because when you try to make a robot human or emotional, in a way you get a stupid machine because it’s not as emotional as a person.
We looked to the iPhone, a very slick, very sexy and very functional device. We wanted to make Temi the iPhone of robotics so it’s clear that it’s a device and not some kind of weird humanoid.
‘ Your technology serves you instead of you serving it, as you don’t have to approach anything, everything comes to you. It’s a step up in your lifestyle. ’

Would you say Temi is about seamlessly integrating technology into day-to-day life?
It pretty much has all of the technology that is being produced today in one device. Imagine going into your house, leaving your smartphone on Temi’s charging tray, and connecting with your friends and family by using voiceactivated video-calling. You see your friends on the screen, but instead of holding the tablet in front of you or standing it on something, Temi’s technology locks onto your face and from that second you can just do whatever you want: wash the dishes, walk around and you don’t have to do anything to enjoy it properly. If you’re not at home you can use Temi to be at home, so if you’re on a business trip and you miss your kids, you can just call your Temi and be with them. It’s the closest thing technologically to ‘Beam me up Scottie’ right now.
We’re aiming the product at the consumer market, for anyone from age 3 to 100. That’s why it’s a one-button device, you don’t need to know anything about technology to work it, so elderly people who have problems working a smartphone can also use it as an assistance robot.

Temi Robot

Is it fundamentally about connecting people?
Yes, facilitating connections between people is at the core of Temi. While we hope that Temi will serve an emotional need that is not its main purpose. We think you should just talk to your friends and family more, and that’s what Temi does. A lot of people try to defy loneliness these days, but I don’t think that a machine’s user interface can help you do that.
We’ve become so addicted to smartphones, but texting isn’t a conversation, it’s ping-ponging information. Even a phone call – it’s nice – but it’s not the same as seeing the person in front of you and looking into their eyes. We understand that no-one will stop using smartphones or stop using phones or texts, and although we can’t fight technology we can improve the way we enjoy it.
‘ A lot of people try to defy loneliness these days, but I don’t think that a machine’s user interface can help you do that. ’

Why did you open-source Temi?

It’s all about open platforms these days. There so many talented young people all over the world who are developing really cool things. I think there is a special interest among developers because Temi opens a new dimension. Instead of something that is static, Temi enables them to develop apps for a moving machine, one that can recognise and follow people. Take, Duo Lingo, a huge language learning app and imagine that instead of just looking at the screen you can walk around with Temi and when it sees a table it says: ‘This is a table’ in Spanish.’ The opportunities for developers are huge.

Original Report by LSN Global

Want to be the first to meet temi? Join our Early Adopter Program

Every technological revolution had its sceptics and technophobes, but when it comes to robots, our fears of robots taking over the world tend to run wild. Well, it’s not the robots that are taking over the world- it’s the high-tech people.

Technology has already taken over our lives and robots are just a direct extension of that. Technology has done much more good things for us than bad – we are more connected, healthier, more educated, less lonely and much more elaborated.

Amazon made consumption comfortable, Google made searching easy, Microsoft made us manage our life much better, and Apple made devices sexy and fun. 10 years ago, my grandmother couldn’t imagine that she would be able to get pictures of her grandchildren skiing in the other side of the world and comment on them in real time, or video talk with her doctor while he is connected online to her vitals. 10 years ago, buying clothes was something we only did in malls and couldn’t imagine how simple and secure it would be to shop online at the best stores in the world, and for the best prices.

These are great things that great people are doing, I am convinced that their intention is doing good things for humanity and is not just about being profitable.

Robotics is about doing good in the same way, taking part of the 2-dimensional virtual space and making it physical in order to serve us- it is a natural transformation. So why are we so afraid?

let’s try to deal with the fears of robots:

Fear 1: If the robot is an AI learning device it might learn to do something bad.

Being scared of robots taking over your home is just like being scared that an iRobot vacuum cleaner will bite you one day. Like any machine, developers define the clear set of rules to what a robot can do and learn, just like you won’t expect that the iPhone will make transactions of money by itself on your behalf.

The robot is a machine designed to do specific tasks and it’s learning capabilities are limited to learn how to serve you best. The companies that are making these robots have a big reputation to keep in order to be profitable, and therefor they won’t risk it by giving the robot the ability to harm us.

Fear 2: Privacy. That hackers will use the robot to penetrate your private information and eventually your home.

Just like all IOT devices such as Alexa, smart TV, connected refrigerators or any ecommerce online transaction, when you choose to be connected your privacy is threatened.

The way to deal with this threat is by top regulations and smart technological components that protect the devices from these threats. Today, privacy technology is very mature with cyber protection technologies. We are well aware of these kinds of standards and technologies because for years we are implementing them in our military robots and over there it’s not just privacy, it can define life or death. The same technologies that Google, Amazon and Apple use in their connected devices will be implemented in home robots.

Of course, there is always the risk of hackers… but it is exactly like there is a risk in flying and still we choose to travel by planes.

Fear 3: The government can use this information to spy on me.

The issue of privacy vs security has been in the news for a long time. The most well-known incidence of the latter category was a February 2016 court case in the United States District Court of California when the FBI wanted Apple to create and electronically sign new software that would enable the FBI to unlock a work-issued iPhone 5C it recovered from one of the shooters in a December 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people and injured 22, apple refused. The FBI later withdrew their request, but the case had made a big impact over the privacy issue of big companies against the government.

As technology will advance, the restrictions of what and when the government can use will be clearer and prohibited by law, but we can see already today that big companies are doing everything they can to keep their reputation and your information private.

If the government could use all of the information google had, they would know everything about you, but then google wouldn’t be google.

Fear 4: Robots will replace us and take our jobs.

The way I see it, robots don’t take peoples jobs, they transform them into different/better ones.

A robot replaces humans in the less attractive jobs that are physical, monotonous and are usually under paid, instead it creates new jobs for us. For example: the pool robot replaced pool cleaners worldwide, but created thousands of new jobs – designing pool robots, engineering, IT, mechanics, marketing, service and repair, sales etc.…

In the past, there was a job called “the iceman”: people that delivered ice to your homes, a job that was completely erased when the refrigerator was invented. Every technological revolution made a number of jobs irrelevant for humans but in the long run it created more companies, and job opportunities for humanity.

Fear 5: Robots will make us coldhearted people that don’t know how to interact with each other.

The fear that the social media harms our social skills is rising as we see more technology come out, while our house is filled with technology that is supposed to serve us, we find ourselves serving it. The technology that is supposed to keep us connected is the main thing that is keeping us disconnected from one another.

• We are spending almost 3 hours a day with our heads down, holding our smartphones.
• We click, tap or swipe on our phone 2,617 times a day.
• The western culture spends over ten hours a day in front of screens.

The way I see it, robots are not here to make us more technological, and are not here to replace our loved ones. They are here to connect us with them better and make us stop working for our technology. A robot lets us consume technology in the most natural way, it comes to us, lets us be handsfree and heads up, understands us and is the easiest and fastest way to get connected without disconnecting from real life.

Today, video calls consumption on skype, Facebook messenger and Duo is higher than ever, because it is the best experience to interact with someone who is not next to you.  A robot is the ultimate device for that because it will let us be handsfree as we move around the house and talk in the most natural, personal way. A robot takes away tasks that we don’t want to do in order to let us concentrate on the things that are important to us: our loved ones.

Robots are not supposed to be human, but to make us better humans.

As a big believer in robots, I think that we shouldn’t let our fears lead us, but we should lead them by giving people the answers to overcome them.

Just like people today are not afraid to leave their house and turn on their robotic vacuum cleaner, without fearing it will wreck their homes, in the future, they won’t be afraid of personal robots assisting them in their day to day life.

The more great, reliable, and intuitive robots we make, the less fears humanity will have of robots, and the more it will benefit from them.

One plus one is sometimes much more than 2, especially when we are talking about technology.

It would be easy to call temi a tablet on wheels. It would also be wrong. Just like smartphones are much more than a phone with internet, temi’s combination of video, mobility and artificial intelligence create a whole new dimension human-to-technology interaction.

Combining technologies creates exponential value and opportunity. Uber may just be a mobile app that used technology to create a taxi service, but the impact of Uber on the world is far greater than the sum of its parts: Uber has triggered a revolution in how we think about transportation. AirBnB is much more than property listings collected into a mobile app: It has become an undeniable part of travel culture, shaping how consumers envision and create their own travel experiences.

It’s the same thing with temi. Three core technologies- AI, mobility and video integrated together- have enabled a personal robot to put us in the center and create a whole new platform of technology that serves us to get more productivity, support, and fulfillment..

Unlocking the Possibilities

temi’s services and functionality will continue to grow as developers build new applications, but it already offers a wide array of abilities that will change your daily life. temi users can easily make hands-free video calls and move around the house as they continue their conversation. If you’re running late or not ready to greet guests to your home, temi can do it for you, and even bring them drinks while they wait.

When you’re traveling for work, temi lets you say goodnight to your child and then go into the other room to visit with your wife. When you’re asleep not home, temi can monitor your house and alert you if there’s a possible threat. You can play interactive, hands-free games like hide-and-seek, or you can have your children play educational games on temi that get them moving instead of sitting in one spot.

Through telemedicine, temi can link you directly with a doctor or health care professional who can use the personal robot to check you out remotely, examining possible injuries and determine whether a hospital visit is needed. If you fall, temi can even call the emergency hotline for you and keep watch until help arrives.​

But even more exciting are all the temi features and services we haven’t yet discovered. Imagine the possibilities as developers build apps specific to temi’s capabilities. Need someone to watch your dog? There’s a temi app for that. Lost your keys? Yep, there’s an app for that, too..

While smartphones keep us connected at any time, temi the personal robot keeps us present anywhere.

Bet you’ve never seen a tablet do that.

Want to be the first to meet temi? Join our Early Adopter Program

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” This is what Ken Olsen, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, said in 1977 when the personal computer idea was presented to him. Today it sounds funny, but this is exactly the way people think about personal robotics at home.

The first thing that everyone asks me about my personal robot is: what does it do? Will it make me coffee? Why do you think anyone would want a robot in their home?

From PC to PR (personal robot) – In my vision, a personal robot is a direct extension of the personal computer and the tablets. If the PC brought the whole world into our homes and smartphones kept us connected at any time, a personal robot will keep us present everywhere.

To sum it up in one word: movement

We are moving creatures and a static device will always bind us.

A smart moving robot can come to us when we are lying on the couch, move with us to any place in the house and adjust the screen to us whether we sit, move or lie down. Imagine your tablet, AI assistant, sound system, remote controls and every technology you have could come to you whenever you want. A personal robot can present us anywhere and physically connect us. For the first time in history we can be at 2 places at once.

Pablo Picasso said: “Anything you can imagine is real”. Well, we have been imagining personal robots for decades. Because at the end of the day every human wants two main things: The first, to be at the center. The second, to be connected to other people. A personal robot can provide both.

Rich people pay a lot of money so that other people serve them. Smart technology can serve everybody and by that make them rich. I think this is wonderful.

In the very near future every family will be able to afford having a personal photographer, a personal assistant and a personal DJ… this is the personal robot experience that puts us at the center and connects us to the things that matter most.

So, let’s put philosophy aside, and let me show you what a robot can do for us in our daily life, and why it will make us better people:

1.   Skype with your kids has such a great influence but we are doing it so little. Why? Because there is no chance that they will stay in front of the tablet for a whole conversation. A robot can let us connect to our kids because it is active, it responds to them, instead of them having to adjust to the device.

Since I have been using a personal robot at home, I’ve noticed that my use of video calls has become longer and more significant.

2.   Don’t you think it’s weird that we are walking at home in our underwear with our smartphone stuck in them because we are so addicted?

We all know how connected we are to our smartphone at home, so connected that it disconnects us from each other. A personal robot can come to us to any room, and bring us the content we need – whether it is taking a video of us fooling around with the kids, connecting to media when we are laying on the couch or just checking the traffic to work as while we dress in the morning. A personal robot will free our hands at home and let us really be with our family. More and more big companies like Apple and Google follow this vision and are creating great AI assistants, and Amazon even launched its new “Amazon show” with a video display – but can you really enjoy a handsfree video call while you are cooking when your amazon show is stuck in the corner of the kitchen? And what if you move to your living room and want to see the news? Carrying your amazon show to every room you go really takes out all the fun and is really not cool. The only real solution for an Ultimate AI assistant is a robot. Only then we can really connect without disconnecting from real life. It is pretty sad that we spend so much time at home while we are actually not there but with our smartphone. A personal robot connects people while smartphones disconnect them from the people around them.

3.   Don’t call home. Be home!

When you are away you constantly think about home – are the kids okay? Did I turn off the oven? A personal robot lets you connect through your smartphone from anywhere, walk around the house from room to room and really be there for your loved ones, talk to them and see them without disrupting their activity, or just check that everything is safe. Whenever you feel like, while waiting at the airport or during a break at work… Just drop home and spend quality time with your family. It’s the closest thing to physically being there.

4.   Get your kids off the screen and on their feet!

Kids today are connected to tablets and smartphones even more than us – Kids sitting for long hours, passively in front of screens has become a real issue. A personal robot is open to endless possibilities of games and educational apps that can move and interact with you- from “hide and seek” to language learning apps that let your kids learn as they are active. The movement and interaction of a personal robot is a whole new world for developers… and a whole new cool world for kids.

5.   When you are finally laid back on the couch the remote/tablet looks so far away

A robot lets you be lazy. It can come to you, show you sports updates, turn on the AC and let you consume any content you want without moving a finger. Imagine you can call your remote, your table or any technology you have and it will just come to you. A smart speaker or smart TV don’t let us really be lazy when we deserve a rest after a long day at work.

6.   Carrying a cup of tea and operating a smartphone is a super complex task for elderly people.

We can’t always physically be there for our parents, but a personal robot is the best way to be there for them. It can come to them, carry their stuff, follow them around the house, watch over them if they fall and automatically call help, and most importantly – let them stay in touch with you: talk, see photos of the kids and be in touch with their doctor at a reach of just asking. It is so intuitive that elderly can easily operate it. A personal robot is a great way for us to be there for them. Sharing pictures and videos of the family gives so much happiness to our parents – What a great way to provide it to them.

7.   If you don’t think global you will stay local

Our life today is more global, we travel more for business, have offices around the world but still want to stay in control. A personal robot will let us do it. With a personal robot, you can be on a business trip in China and still talk to your engineers in the morning and walk around your office to see everybody is doing ok. Unlike video conference you don’t need to interrupt everybody’s work and gather them around in a conference room. In today’s reality, a CEO doesn’t call one of his employees just to say hi, but with a personal robot it’s something that will become natural, and it can change the day for your employees. Just connect to your personal robot, walk through your office and communicate with your colleagues as if you were there beside them. The most important thing in business is leadership, and leadership starts with looking your team in the eye.

8.   Don’t stop what you are doing to connect

We have so many tasks around the house – folding laundry, cooking, cleaning and just having fun with the kids. Up until today every time we wanted to talk to a friend or just go over the news we had to stop what we are doing and connect… Not anymore. A personal robot will connect us without disrupting our life – video call while cooking, watch sports updates while cleaning or order pizza while playing with your kids. Togetherness bring happiness.

9.     Let a robot work for you when you are out

A personal robot keeps on working for you all the time. He can be your personal security guard, check that there are no gas leaks or that the AC is off. He will always notify you through your smartphone if something is wrong. Your robot never gets tired (and if he does he simply auto charges himself). This will give you the peace of mind when you are out of your home. And I haven’t mentioned the endless possibilities for business, hotels, restaurants and hospitals.

10. It’s a cool thing to own : )

If you relate to at least one of these situations, the personal robot is the answer. If not… well, not everybody should be a robot owner.

Your personal DJ, your personal photographer, your personal AI assistant, your personal security guard… your personal robot. This Is the new way to connect and it’s all about you.

Where are the robots?

We see them in movies from Rosie Jetson to wall-E, we read about them in books and articles. We know they are already making a big impact in the industry world, raising efficiency in agriculture, making us live longer and better in healthcare, and saving soldier’s lives in warfare. We all know that a robot maximizes our capabilities in every aspect. Robots make us better humans because they enable us to focus on the things that are important for us.

So where are the robots? how come we hear about them everywhere except in our lives?

It seems like the robotic industry invests in businesses and efficiency instead of in humans.

100% of the robots today are not interacting with us!

And I’m not talking about vacuum robots that are just for cleaning, I’m talking about robots that will serve us in our daily life. A robot that can listen, talk, understand and move freely in order to put us in the center.

So why is the industry ignoring its biggest consumers: Us in our homes?

There are 5 main reasons:

1.   The environment: Our home is the hardest environment for a robot- it is unpredictable, filled with toys, kids, pets, rugs ,each house is completely different and more importantly- each human-being is completely different.

2.   The user: While military, industrial, and agriculture robots are operated by trained adult workers, the personal robot must be so intuitive that a 4-year-old or a grandmother with no training can use it easily- it has to be intuitive to use just like switching on the lights.

3.    The price: A revolution can’t exist without users, and the robot must be affordable for the average family – just like an iPhone. If I compare it to an industrial or military robot, they can cost about 100 times more than a personal robot. This challenge has been a prohibitive factor for years and the only way to solve it is through IT, cloud and software innovations and less hardware.

4.   Clear benefit:  A user is not looking for a robot but for its clear benefit and nobody has yet to understand the real benefit of a personal robot and deliver on that benefit – without failing. The market today failed in creating a personal robot. Products like Asimo, Kuri, Buddy, Pepper and Sony’s robot dog can do many overpromising things but nobody understands why they should buy them. A personal robot shouldn’t replace our loved ones- it should connect us with them.

5.    The package: a personal robot is a combination of mechanics, software and hardware but above all it must be a product you will want to put in your home – the design and details must be in the highest level, otherwise it is just a toy. We must do for robotics what apple did for smartphones and Tesla for electric cars – make them a sexy, fashionable product.

So now yo are probably asking yourself: why on earth am I doing it?

Because this is the holy grail of robotics, and the place it can make the biggest impact.

The way I see it, every technology we have in our home is just a phase on the way to become a robot because when you add AI and movement to any appliance you maximize it to serve you in the best way.

Take your Amazon Echo for example, today It is just a smart speaker. Add a display screen and it will become a real AI assistant. Add movement and now it is a robot that can really put you in the center. This is where every technology will go in the future and this future is closer than you think.

Technology today is mature enough to overcome the challenges of a personal robot. Cloud technology, electric power, brushless motors, digital cameras and computing modules made a giant leap in the last couple of years due to the internet and smartphones revolution. This has set a stable ground for the next big revolution in our lives- the personal robotic revolution.

From life saving robots to life changing robots. Watch Temi’s CEO Yossi Wolf speak at HK rise summit