Keecker home robot aims to replace your DVR with R2-D2

For humans, space might be the final frontier, but robots have it pretty well in hand. The International Space Station is currently home to both NASA’s Robonaut and Japan’s Kirobo, and the Curiosity Rover is cataloging Mars as we speak. For robots, a lack of oxygen and extreme cold is nothing — the real challenge is navigating a typical human household. Essentially, robots haven’t yet reached a point where they are inexpensive/useful enough to justify a place in our homes. The Roomba vacuum cleaner is an exception, of course, but beyond that there aren’t many home robots to point to.

Paris-based company Keecker wants to change that with a new entry into the consumer electronics market. The company showed off a prototype of its mobile, wireless robot at CES last week, which it says represents an entirely new product category. And indeed, the video below, which shows the robot in action, does feel like scenes from the near-future world of a movie like “Her.”

Essentially, the robot is a self-contained home entertainment system that can project movies or games or a Skype conversation on the wall. It can play music on command. When you’re away, it can monitor your home’s temperature, humidity, CO2 level and more. Everything is controlled via smartphone using a variety of apps.

Whether this will be the next “must have” item for the home remains to be seen, but it’s certainly an interesting concept. Keecker says the device will be available to consumers in the $4,000 to $5,000 price range starting in the fourth quarter of 2014. The robot will come with roughly one terabyte of local storage space and a rechargeable battery that will keep it powered for several days.

[ photo courtesy of Keecker ]