Karotz is the first step to us all having a physical online assistant or butler.
The Karotz can wake you up in the morning by singing a nice song, then, a couple of seconds after that, it tells you the weather
Managing director of Karotz, Patrice Bigeard, explains to Humans Invent how the little helper can make your life run more smoothly. He says, “The Karotz can wake you up in the morning by singing a nice song, then, a couple of seconds after that, it tells you the weather. It can also find out what the traffic is like and if it is moving quickly it will inform you it is ok to have a few more minutes in bed.”
The smart companion
Karotz can also be controlled remotely via a smartphone. The plastic rabbit has an inbuilt camera which gives the user a visual channel into their home when they are away. It could even watch the dog for you. Bigeard says, “It is a way of keeping a link with what you cherish and what you cherish is your home, your family and friends. Thanks to this device you can keep a close link to all these elements.”
You can also activate and control your Karotz when you are away. For example, it is possible to communicate your feelings to your family and friends through the Karotz – you can change the position of its ears and the colour of its front to indicate mood through the smartphone app (though admittedly it would be easier just to call your family and communicate directly).
Assistant cum security guard
Two Karotz can ‘mate’ which means they will react to each other and allows for the user to activate their Karotz through another. Bigeard tells us, “Your friend can access your Karotz and send you text messages. You can even control the camera, so your friends can see you through your Karotz.”
With the Radio-frequency identification sensor in the rabbit’s nose, you can wave RFID tags in front of it to trigger certain applications. The little Flatnanoz, rabbit shaped too and which encases an RFID chip, can be given to family members to activate a particular application.
The idea was to provide a new way to access the internet without a keyboard
Karotz is an evolution of the Nabaztag which was introduced seven years ago by a French company called Violet, however, the initial product ran into difficulties. Bigeard sexplains, “The idea was to provide a new way to access the internet without any keyboard etc. But seven years ago Wifi wasn’t very good which meant the connectivity of the product wasn’t good enough.”
The online assistant of the future?
Of course, with Wifi as it is today, this is no longer an issue, and while people won’t one day wonder how we lived our lives before Kartoz came into being, it certainly makes banal tasks a little easier and a little more pleasurable. Unlike the Furby, which every sleep deprived owner smashed to smithereens after a few days of living with its bizarre jabbering, Karotz serves a purpose and could become a standard addition to the family home in the near future. It’s certainly a new-age alternative to the Filo-fax…
