Amazon recently unveiled its ‘Astro’ home robot that comes with a periscope camera to track movements in a given space. The company explains that the robot is “designed to help customers with a range of tasks like home monitoring and keep in touch with family.” Like most other Echo devices, it can help users with routines and reminders, playing music and TV, and finally, monitoring and surveilling. However, a Vice investigation claims that Astro records everything while adding that the robot comes with serious design flaws. It adds that its person recognition capabilities are not up to mark and is not ready for release.
The report highlights internal documents on Amazon Astro – developed under the code ‘Vesta,’ that essentially offer insight on how the home robot functions. Other files assessed by the publication refer to “Sentry,” the components and software that control the robot’s security features. Sentry software also includes integration with Ring cameras and Alexa Guard, Amazon’s home security services. The report claims that Astro records every movement of the owner or a stranger it does not recognise unless the owner disables “stranger investigation” mode. If it’s set to “Sentry mode” or a patrol mode, it will either approach the stranger or follow them and begin a series of “investigation activities,” which Amazon describes as “a series of actions Sentry takes to investigate audio or presence while recording.”
Some developers (unnamed) who worked on the project told the publication that the versions of Astro they worked on did not function well. “Astro is terrible and will almost certainly throw itself down a flight of stairs if presented the opportunity. The person detection is unreliable at best, making the in-home security proposition laughable,” a source who worked on the project told Vice. The home robot is also said to be fragile for the cost. Another source claimed Astro is a “disaster that is not ready for release.”
Speaking over the concerns, Kristy Schmidt, senior PR manager for devices and services at Amazon, told Motherboard that these characterisations of Astro’s “performance, mast, and safety systems are simply inaccurate.” Schmidt adds that Astro went through rigorous testing, and the company even consulted with an external expert Ayanna Howard, dean of the Ohio State University College of Engineering, to review its “person recognition” capabilities. Howard, during the review, claimed Astro’s recognition feature not “only works statistically well for all their customers, but that it also continues to get better over time on behalf of those customers.”
In a separate blog post, Amazon earlier had clarified that its home robot has a dedicated microphone/camera-off button like other Echo devices. When enabled, Astro cannot move or capture video and audio – and a dedicated red LED is illuminated to match the red status indicator on the screen. In another FAQ page, Amazon claims that the sensor data that Astro uses to navigate your home is processed on-device and not always sent to the cloud. It only streams video or images to the cloud when users use features, like live view in the Astro app, video calling with Alexa Communications, or video recording and storage by Ring.
Astro costs $1,449.99 (approx Rs 1,07,500), but it will be available for an introductory price of $999.99 (approx Rs 74,200) with a six-month trial of the Ring Protect Pro subscription included – as part of the Day 1 Edition programme. Astro will be available in limited quantities, and the company plans to start granting invitations and shipping devices to customers in the US later this year.
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