robot – Tech Raman https://techraman.com Simplified Tech Talk Sun, 05 Jan 2020 09:09:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://techraman.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/TR_logo-150x120.png robot – Tech Raman https://techraman.com 32 32 HDFC bank launches Humanoid Robot Assistant IRA 2.0 and Virtual Banking Assistants EVA https://techraman.com/hdfc-bank-humanoid-robot-assistant-ira-2-0-and-virtual-banking-assistants-eva/ https://techraman.com/hdfc-bank-humanoid-robot-assistant-ira-2-0-and-virtual-banking-assistants-eva/#respond Wed, 02 May 2018 04:16:03 +0000 http://techraman.com/?p=13417 ]]> IRA 2.0 Humanoid Robot IRA is the first of its kind implementation in the banking industry in India, introducing a humanoid for customer service. The technology has been developed by HDFC Bank in collaboration with its technology partners Invento Makerspaces and Senseforth Technologies. The first version of the IRA was launched in January 2017 at the Bank’s Kamala mills branch in Mumbai and is now currently stationed at the Palarivattom branch in Kochi. HDFC bank is actively pursuing to better the Humanoid experience and the IRA 2.0 is the next progression level with few more advance skills added to it. By mapping the branch layout, customers can not only ask certain banking queries to the humanoid but IRA 2.0 can also walk them to the designated counters. The future road map for IRA includes communicating in-depth the banking products, suggestions, give information about bank accounts, handle service requests and provide the status of applications or requests.

HDFC EVA – Virtual Assistant

Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa enabled devices are slowly finding into the homes of Indian households and Google Assistant is practically in almost all the Android phones in our hands. Taking leverage of these two powerful assistants, HDFC has integrated their virtual assistant EVA to work with both. HDFC is the first bank to offer voice banking experience on Alexa. Since its launch, EVA which stands for To offer the simplicity and convenience of a voice conversation to banking transactions, HDFC Bank’s virtual assistant ‘EVA’ has been successfully integrated with Amazon Alexa, making it the first bank to offer voice banking experience on Alexa. Since its launch, EVA, which stands for ‘Electronic Virtual Assistant’ has addressed over 65 lakh queries on voice and chat-based channels with over 85 per cent accuracy. With this integration, HDFC Bank customers can now chat with EVA using voice from the comfort of their homes, without having to pick up a phone, tablet or laptop.

EVA Skill on Alexa

So what can customers can ask EVA on Alexa? In the first phase which has been implemented now, an user after integrating the EVA skill on Alexa can ask about
  • bank’s product features,
  • fees and charges,
  • interest rates,
  • credit card reward points / payment date / expiry date
  • branches (address, IFSC).
  • Customers can also enquire about how to block/unblock card, what to do if one forgets pin, and update personal information.
In the first phase, customers can ask EVA on Alexa about bank’s product features, fees and charges, interest rates, credit card reward points / payment date / expiry date, and branches (address, IFSC).Customers can also enquire about how to block / unblock card, what to do if one forgets pin, and updating personal information. In future, EVA on Alexa will support banking transaction and deliver hyper-personalized service using voice. Going forward, EVA on Alexa will support banking transactions and deliver hyper-personalized services using voice. HDFC Bank collaborated with Senseforth and Amazon to build India’s first Banking skill on Alexa.

EVA on Google Assistant

While Alexa is still not at every home, Google Assistant is in almost every Android phone and Android phones have the lion’s share in the mobile segment. By integrating EVA to the Google Assistant, HDFC bank has taken the voice-based banking to the masses. With the launch of the Google home in India, EVA can be accessed on those devices too. Instead of typing, users can simply say “Ok Google, talk to HDFC Bank” to their Google Assistant to interact with Eva. By voice users can make queries on banking products and features like in Alexa skill. IRA 2.0 and EVA are definitely a milestone in the digital banking momentum taking place in the banking industry in India and HDFC bank is taking the lead in the space. Voice based technology interaction is where the future is heading to and HDFC has made a jump start and now provides a simple and intuitive voice interactions through their Smartphones, Alexa Echo and Google home products so that users can conveniently access information anywhere, anytime. Who said banking is a boring affair? Not anymore.  ]]>

]]> https://techraman.com/hdfc-bank-humanoid-robot-assistant-ira-2-0-and-virtual-banking-assistants-eva/feed/ 0 iRobot Roomba 870 Review https://techraman.com/irobot-roomba-870-review/ https://techraman.com/irobot-roomba-870-review/#respond Thu, 19 Nov 2015 22:21:23 +0000 http://techraman.com/?p=10223 ]]> In a country where we have a startup, bookmybai, offering maids on hire and maids are integral family member of many households, one might dismiss iRobot as fancy product. But India is changing and after using the iRobot Roomba 870 for a fortnight now, I think vacuum cleaning robots could soon make way into many households especially in urban cities. There are increasing number of working couples households who find it difficult to manage theirs and maid’s timings and then even finding the right house helpers are increasingly becoming difficult as well as costlier. Then there are those clean freaks, who would like a second round of cleaning later the day. For all those, iRobot Roomba would be a perfect help and here is why. iRobot, a popular household name in America and Europe officially started its operation in India few months back with their own stores as well as an e-commerce platform in their Indian website. The iRobot offers vacuum cleaning and mopping robots. In India they currently offer their 600, 700 and 800 series and the price starts at Rs 32,900. The review unit they send us is iRobot Roomba 870, priced at Rs 62,900 (currently they run a festive offer discount of Rs 13,000) iRobot-Roomba-807-Box The box contents include:
  • The Roomba machine
  • docking station
  • Power chord
  • two vertical walls unit
  • a spare filter
  • 4 AA batteries for the vertical walls
  • User manual and a quick guide.
iRobot-Roomba-870-box-contents Across the series, the iRobot Roomba has a distinctive circular design, while the 600 series have predominant white color on the body, the 700 and 800 series have opted for black and grey shades that work better visually. The Roomba is a sturdy device and it has to be as it collides with the walls and furniture when prowling to gather dirt. iRobot-Roomba-870 A handle on the top makes it easy to carry around. iRobot-Roomba-Carrying-handle The top face display has four buttons – dock, clock, schedule and spot. The scheduler can set the timer for each day of the week for the Roomba to automatically go about its work on the scheduled time. There is also a bin release button and a room confinement sensor on the top. There is a large Clean/Power button, that glows in green. iRobot-Roomba-Scheduling Turn to the bottom side, there are three pairs of cliff sensors, spinning side brush, debris extractors, removable caster wheel, two sturdy wheel module. iRobot-Roomba-870-rear iRobot introduced the AeroForce technology first in the 800 series and replaced the bristle brushes with rubber rollers. The company says it cleans up to 50 percent more dirt, hair, and debris. AeroForce is essentially two treaded rubber rollers that spin in opposite directions. The treads are angled and it enhances the sucking power of the air flow by creating a sealed channel on the floor. It also tangle less with long hairs, pet hairs and threads when compared to the bristle brushes. iRobot-Roomba-870-extractors The extractors can be easily removed for cleaning and easily snaps back in position. iRobot-Roomba-Extractor-wheel_1 There is a side spinning wheel which helps to dig out the dirt from the edges as well as to sweeps the dirt around to the path of Roomba for it to swallow them into its belly. iRobot-Roomba-870-side-spin-brush The dust bin is small and it can be easily released by a press of button and snapped back. On the top, there is a lid that covers the filter. iRobot-Roomba-Collection-bin The bin can get quickly filled, I had to empty it every 4-5 days but it depends on how messy your house is. iRobot-Roomba-collected-dirt-in-the-bin The cleaner bot is very simple to use. When the bot is powered off, first press of the clean button, brings it to live and you see the green glow. A second press sends it to cleaning. Similarly, when it is working, pressing the clean button pauses it and a long press shuts it down. The robot is íntelligent’ too. When the battery is on low charge, it automatically finds its way back to the docking station to recharge. There is also a regular cleaning and spot mode. The spot mode instructs the vacuum to work on a particular area. You get two virtual walls out of the box. If you want to create a virtual barrier to block of the particular area or room, you can just place the virtual wall box to create a fence. It works very well. iRobot-Roomba-870-virtual-walls The cliff sensors work brilliantly, the first time I used my heart skipped a beat when it approached the edge of the stairs but it stopped, turned and continued its cleaning act.  Accessing difficult to reach areas like under the cot are easy with Roomba. It waded under my cot, coffee tables and furnitures smoothly and does not complaint. While Roomba is easy to use, it can test your patience too, if you are in a hurry. While it can sense the time it needs to clean the room and then hit the docking station once the job is done. At times it can take its own pace, it follows an algorithm to cover as much ground as possible but while you see a dirt a few feet away from the Roomba, it can skip it go the other corner and lazily return after some time to clean the dirt. But, it does the job. Having said that, the dirt sensor can sometime disappoint by half-cleaning at one area and thinking it is done with it. (may be it mimics us, ha!)  It also can gobble up the food spills, I was surprised it slurped the pomegranate juice that had dripped down a cracked fruit on to the floor along with other bits and pieces of kitchen wastes. If you have a large carpet area, you would appreciate Roomba. It does a fantastic job at sucking out the hidden dirt. I don’t have cats or dogs as pet, so I took the Roomba to a friends place to check how it handles the pet’s hairs. Unless you have a long-haired dogs, you shouldn’t be having much issue. Long hairs can occasionally tangle into the extractors needing your attention. Though in my testing period, I faced no such instances barring once. The Roomba also needs periodic maintenance. The extractors and sensors needs to be cleaned. The dust bin of course has to be emptied when it is full. Fortunately, there is an indicator (including a voice one) that says the bin is full.

Conclusion

To be honest, it was my first attempt at testing an automatic vacuum and iRobot Roomba 870 struck a positive note with me. Yes, the traditional vacuum cleaners offers a better suction power but the Roomba frees your time. When used regularly, the Roomba can keep your home pretty cleaner. At it’s price, it will be a luxury for many and I have no plans of retiring my maid. For those who can afford it, the Roomba can be one happy cleaning bot offering a good, compact design, solid build quality and impressive performance.]]>

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