Cleaning up small spills at home just got much easier. A company called Matic has released a new update for its robot vacuum that allows users to control the device using hand gestures and voice commands. Instead of opening a smartphone app to set a cleaning area, you can now simply point at a mess on your floor to send the robot directly to it.
The new feature, called Matic Cues, uses five built-in cameras to recognize user movements. To start, you say "Hey, Matic" to wake up the vacuum. The robot turns to look at you, and you point at the dirty area and say "clean here." If you gesture while standing up, the robot cleans a wider space. If you crouch down and point closer to the floor, it cleans a smaller, specific spot. You can also tell the robot to follow you from room to room.
Because gesture control processes data directly on the device using its own cameras, it works without sending video images to the cloud. However, the new voice assistant does connect to the internet. Matic uses Google's Gemini artificial intelligence to understand natural spoken language. This lets users give detailed instructions, such as asking the vacuum to avoid tassels on a rug or to clean multiple rooms in a specific order.
The company explained that while the wake word is recognized locally on the vacuum, subsequent voice commands are anonymized before being sent to the cloud for processing. Users can also turn off the microphones and opt out of the feature at any time.
The software update is available for all existing Matic robot vacuums. The vacuum currently costs $1,245, though the company plans to increase the price to $1,495 on September 9.