Sometimes, a robot just wants a hug. That’s the message, I think, of the very brief 1X Neo Beta home robot introduction video. The Norwegian robotics company used the short video to unveil its new sweatsuit-clad humanoid robot on August 30 and show how it might safely operate in your home.
1X has been working on humanoid robotics for a decade with the original intention of bringing them to factories and other commercial facilities. The turning point to a more consumer focus might’ve been its 2022 partnership with OpenAI, which led to generative AI integration in its 1X line of robots. Earlier this year, the company started posting videos of its 1X A1 robot, a humanoid robot with gripper hands and wheels for feet. In those clips, the robots could be seen poorly cleaning tables, slowly folding laundry, and responding to commands like, “Can you please pick up the cup?”
Neo Beta, though, appears to be a significant leap forward. Gone is the somewhat cartoonish face, replaced with what appears to be an expressionless black glass. Instead of wheels, the robot has feet, and the grippers were replaced with expressive, 10-fingered hands.
The video offers virtually no details about the robot and its operation but tells a touching little story. In it, the robot is in a living room with a young woman. As she sits on the couch, tying her shoes, the robot points to her backpack and makes a shrug gesture. The woman says, “Yeah,” and the robot picks up the backpack and carefully hands it to her.
The woman leaves the room, and Neo Beta appears at a loss, looking at its hands and then toward the exiting woman. The robot gestures for her to come back and when she returns, the girl puts her arm over the robot’s shoulders and the robot puts a hand around her waist.
It’s not often we see a real-world human/robot embrace, and with good reason. Does a robot know how not to squeeze her too hard?
In a release on the in-home test, Bernt Børnich, CEO at 1X, said, “Our priority is safety. Safety is the cornerstone that allows us to confidently introduce NEO Beta into homes, where it will gather essential feedback and demonstrate its capabilities in real-world settings.”
Børnich doesn’t explain how this safety is achieved, although it appears that some of what 1X will learn about this deployment is through trial and error in a carefully controlled beta test at “selected homes for research and development purposes.”
Other questions linger, such as price, battery life, availability, and, can the robot walk? In the video, it’s seen in a few different positions, but we never see Neo Beta walk from one spot to another.
Even so, the looks and movement have led to online conjecture that this is nothing more than a person in a costume. Granted, it is hard to assess how the robot is working under its fashionable black and gray sweatsuit, and some of the movements are eerily human-like.
On the other hand, with the recent explosion in humanoid robot development, we are seeing more and more fluid movement and conversational interaction. Figure 01’s OpenAI-powered robots, in particular, offer some mind-blowing movement and interactive capabilities. You can, however, see quite clearly how Figure AI robots are working.
Perhaps 1X could post a follow-up video showing Neo Beta without its sweatsuit. That might be a bit uncomfortable for the robot’s blonde friend, so maybe we just leave her out of it.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
