Forget your smart speakers and smart displays – the future of home automation might just have a face, literally! Imagine a robot head, chilling on your fireplace mantel, effortlessly controlling your entire entertainment system with just a voice command. That’s the wild reality 1X, the company behind the upcoming Neo humanoid robot, recently teased. While their CEO has promised full Neo robots will be making their way into homes this year, it looks like some lucky employees are already getting a taste – or rather, a head-start – on what’s to come.
In a super cool video shared by 1X’s chief designer, Dar Sleeper, we see a disembodied Neo head, described as a “factory defect,” perched casually above some books. Someone simply asks it to pick a movie, and boom – the TV springs to life, navigates the Apple TV interface, and starts playing The Lord of the Rings. No remote, no robot body, just pure AI magic. It’s pretty wild to think that even these cast-off parts are proving incredibly capable, with teammates already using them to integrate their entire houses.
This little peek into the future sparks a huge question: what are humanoid robots really for in our homes? We often picture them tackling chores like laundry or fetching drinks, which, surprisingly, are incredibly tough tasks for current robots. But Neo’s head, packed with cameras, microphones, speakers, an internet connection, and a powerful AI brain, already has everything you’d expect from a top-tier smart display or speaker. It seems the “brain” of the robot might be just as, if not more, useful than its hands and feet, completely transforming how we interact with our smart homes.