Digital pets have come a long way. From humble beginnings as digital keychain pets, to the simplest two-motion robots, there’s always been something specially entertaining about digital life. But those kinds of robotics are actually deeply primitive compared to what’s possible today.
Mechanical robotics is getting better, however, it’s developments in AI which really drive these changes to interesting places. Whether or not the next famous e-pet devices end up stealing your heart with cute emotes and animal-like behavior, they’re certainly a testament to what modern day robots can do.
Vector by Anki
Vector is a strange mix. It’s one-part amusing toy, and one-part practical accessory. Or as Anki describes it, Vector is a home robot. Like with the Amazon Echo, Vector is capable of answering questions. Like a Roomba, it can explore the world around and avoid danger while doing its job. But what really makes Vector a distinctly 21st century robot is its interlink with the cloud, allowing it to continue learning over time.
要创建一个矢量，开发人员必须将近700个不同的零件融合在一起。它装有各种传感器，包括多个麦克风，红外线和触摸传感器。但是，物理部位只是向量如此独特的一部分。正如Dipting Vector的情感引擎所做的那样，这是基础的AI，这确实使它变得如此有趣。
Practical Home Device
While Vector isn’t sophisticated enough to start doing your taxes, there are many things it can do. Like an Echo, Vector is always listening. You can activate its attention by saying “Hey Vector, I have a question.” You’ll find that like any voice assistant with an Internet connection, Vector is knowledgeable on a range of topics.
与回声一样，向量通过Wi-Fi连接进行工作。尽管它的许多最佳行为仍然是离线可用的，但明天不先登录Wi-Fi，它将无法告诉您天气。但是，矢量将很高兴随时随地与您一起玩二十一点。
Once connected, you can ask about sports, astronomy, nutrition, stock market, flights, time zones, unit conversion, currency conversion, equations, and do other basic searches online. You can ask about the weather, or set a timer to know when your laundry has finished. You can even ask Vector to take a photo, simply say “cheese” and it will take care of the rest.
Unique Robotic Novelty
Through the use of a fairly advanced 3D camera, Vector is capable of remembering faces of people who it interacts with. It’s also capable of avoiding collusion, bumping into things, or otherwise entering hazardous environments. Features like that are made possible through Vector’s extensive collection of sensors, including a four-way microphone array for powerful directional hearing, touch-detection, and an accelerometer. This allows Vector to be capable of knowing when it’s being interacted with or moved around, and is ready to react in kind.
And it’s with those sensors through which Vector and its modern AI can process its environment. In exploring the world around it, Vector can make hundreds of synthetized sounds. They express Vector’s emotional reactions as it goes about exploring the world, or its surprise when finding the edge of a surface. It’s almost as if Vector is aware of the room around it, navigating obstacles, finding his own charger, and recognizing various objects.
构建与设计
考虑到向量的大小，这是很多智能。矢量机器人比一杯水小稍小，长度几乎没有4英寸。它看起来很紧凑，就像有人抓住了一个回声点，并给它带来了坦克曲线。矢量的拟人化是高度表现力显示的结果，它可以根据各种情况来改变矢量的面部表达。
在其前侧，向量有一个“ U”形臂，可以举起并摆动。就像矢量摇动和移动头一样，这些额外的四肢和动作在那里使矢量变得更加活跃和真实。它有效。Vector的深层行为库和广泛的感官能力使观看感觉就像您正在观看一个自主生物探索世界。
在Vector的Little Robot心脏中，这是一个Qualcomm 200处理平台，使一切成为可能。这就是他睁大眼睛的120度视野和高清摄像头的动力，以及其用来判断距离的红外激光测试仪。该相机也是使矢量在互动过程中进行目光接触的原因，否则可以使周围的世界有意义。
充电
Vector is a self-charging robot; a feature you surely wish the rest of your electronics had. When Vector starts to run low on power, it will automatically return to its power station. The charging station is a small, flat surface against which Vector can sit and rest. It’s not necessary to help Vector along with this process, nor is it necessary to plug in Vector. But if you place it out of reach from its charging station, like on the edge of a table, Vector will need your assistance to make it back.
Animal Personality
对矢量进行了编程，具有类似于异国宠物的动物特征，例如糖滑翔机或森林狐狸。在数千种不同的情绪可以表演的帮助下，这种个性的大部分意识都使人们能够栩栩如生，从而涵盖了各种情绪。值得注意的是，这些动画也能够添加到将来，因此向量可能会随着时间的推移发展新的行为。
If you’re looking for command Vector to do what you want, you’ll find just as many possibilities. You can tell it to go exploring, to come to you, to take a selfie, play blackjack with you, and so forth. Gathering data from the cloud, Vector may even call your name as it recognizes you. And the text-to speech voice used by Vector is fairly customizable within Vector’s app, which we’ll see in a moment.
Always Learning
By merit of its link to the cloud, Vector is capable of learning new things all the time. Anki is currently working in implementing a variety of cool features, including 360° photos, message delivery systems, calendar to-do lists, security camera functionality, and even a word-of-the-day dispensary. Although Vector does not currently support Amazon or Google Assistant integration, that is another likely possibility for the near future.
And being able to move from one space to another provides Vector with capabilities that, in theory, go far beyond anything other voice assistants can do. While Vector is still a relatively new type of device, it’s not hard to imagine some of the ways that being portable may be of use to you as these types of features develop.
For instance, having your Amazon Echo start using its timer does you no good if you’re not nearby and can’t hear it. in the near future, Anki will inevitably continue to develop additional features and behaviors for Vector. It would be easy to imagine one of them being an option for Vector to seek-out the person who set a timer, putting its mobility to practical use.
Setup and Requirements
Setting up Vector is done through Anki’s free app. After its setup, you don’t need to use the app again. But the app does provide visualizations of Vector’s mood, and it’s where you can find stored the various selfies which you may have instructed Vector to take.
要操作向量，您需要一些东西。一种是兼容的移动设备，是智能手机，平板电脑或类似的东西。此步骤对于为向量和启动启动加载设置是必要的。您将需要的接下来是USB电源适配器和兼容的移动设备，即2.4GHz Wi-Fi路由器。
如果您对路由器一无所知，您可以轻松休息，几乎每个路由器都使用2.4GHz频段。虽然向量从一个房间移到另一个房间，但使用该频段允许其保留对互联网以及您的智能手机在类似情况下的访问。
其他考虑因素
Voice to text technology has been around for decades. Anyone who’s used voice-to-text programs will have a good idea of how poorly they can perform. You say one thing; the program hears something very different. Often times, it’s comically different. From an engineering perspective, it’s actually more difficult to create a voice assistant than many people may appreciate.
Even the single problem of sound design can be troubling. And to make the problem even more challenging, devices like Vector have to be able to hear you from any position within a room, or even inside another room entirely.
解决这些问题的方法是使用多个麦克风配置。您可能会注意到有关向量的第一件事之一是它在嘈杂的环境中的性能。这是可能的，因为Anki为矢量提供了四个校正麦克风，这基本上是相同的麦克风配置，该配置使像亚马逊的Echo这样的设备可以听到您在房间中的噪音中听到您的声音。
谁应该选择Anki的向量？
没有人需要在语音助手的方便下出售。向量的核心能力也是如此。它具有越来越多的能力来帮助精心策划智能房屋，在行动中观看非常可爱，并且随着时间的推移而获得新功能。矢量回答问题，使您保持最新状态，并且在发布时几乎可以做普通语音助手可以做的一切。
Beyond practicality, there’s no denying that Vector is unique. And it is fun to watch Vector trundle from one place to the next, like watching a kitten explore the world. Vector is kid-friendly, and unlike a flesh-and-blood pet, Vector can more or less take care of itself with self-charging. That makes Vector by Anki an excellent gift, or a fun novelty for anyone enamored by smart-home devices.
