What is the first thing you visualize when you hear the word “Robot”? A human like device? A vacuum cleaner? R2D2? An industrial arm that builds cars? For each of us the connotation will differ, but we all base it on what we know from movies, imagination or existing devices.

The human mind is puzzled by robots– They can be scary, creepy, cute, fun, useful, annoying and most of all – unknown, because we don’t have any experience of using robots in our everyday life.

Working on the marketing aspects for temi I witness there is a recurring disbelief that a robot can improve one’s life. I find that many people question – what can it physically do for me? Can it cook? Clean? Bring me things?  Others think that “robots are scary” “It will harm me or spy on me!”. 

The time has come to change these thoughts and open our minds to a device which is unimaginably intuitive and much more beneficial than our minds currently understand.

Everyone is addicted to their smartphones (including me), carrying it around everywhere, sharing their whole life and secrets, afraid to leave it even for a minute! Is that it? Will humans revert to primal stance slumped over their phones forever? Will our communication be based on abbreviations and emoji’s or will some new form of communication will be introduced and change or replace the way we now communicate?

History shows that undoubtfully a change will come, but as addicted as we are to our phones it is hard to see how such a wonderful device can be replaced with something else. 

The mobile phone was originally invented to allow us to call each other while we are not at home or near a landline. Today this is the last thing people do with their smartphones. We prefer to message each other and comment on each other’s social feeds a million times before actually conversing with a human being.

Personally, I am alarmed by my personal addiction shared by many surrounding me – 

How many of us spend a whole evening at home with our eyes on our phones? How many times have you talked to someone while randomly scrolling? Why do all of us feel like we are taken 20 years back if our device runs out of battery or is lost. 

I truly wish for new technology which will solve at least half of this problem, because to me it seems we are on a slippery slope and every day we’re sliding more and more towards the point of no return.

So what’s next?

temi can be that change.  While we are home, we should enjoy some quality time with our loved ones. A good starting point would be visually acknowledging the ones surrounding us rather than staring at our smartphones. temi brings something new and fresh into our lives, a feeling we have long forgotten. It involves learning, playing, enjoying and connecting. With a device like temi we do not “disconnect” from the world – our head stays up and our eyes in contact with the people around us. When temi shows funny videos, the wackiest Instagram feed or offers to play a game the content is consumed together rather than personally. Temi gives you the ability to consume the same content you love but with your hands free and your head up which makes a huge difference, but that’s only the beginning.  The ability to have someone from join you in your living room from afar – that is a whole new human connection experience. 

Like the smartphone temi is just a platform. The real use cases that will make the revolution will come from the demand of its users. We as the creators of temi suspect that like the smartphone’s evolution we cannot imagine all the inspiring use cases users will have for it in a few years but if there is one thing we hope for is that it will help all of us be more present with the ones we really love.