BARCELONA
— We expected a new, modular flagship phone from LG, and we imagined there
might be a VR-related gadget in the mix — both turned out to be true — but what
we didn’t expect was a robot.
Yet,
that’s exactly what LG gave us here at Mobile World Congress: a ball-shaped,
home-monitoring robot that you control with your phone and use it to amuse your
pets, control home appliances and see what’s happening in your house.
The
Rolling Bot (don’t call it a “ball,” LG reps said, but everyone did) connects
to your home network via Wi-Fi and has a microphone and a speaker, an
8-megapixel camera and a laser pointer.
LG
gave us several use cases — in one mode, the robot starts rolling around in a
frenzy, pointing the laser dot around it and making R2D2-style noises, which
should make your cat less bored while you’re away.
The
one usage scenario I liked the most, though, was the surveillance aspect. The
Rolling Bot has a decent camera, and you can see what the robot sees as you
control it with your smartphone. | 
