Sony's Xperia Agent robot is a cute, friendly smart-home butler

Sony has reintroduced the Xperia Agent at tech showcase IFA 2016, adding some new tricks, including the ability to connect to a smart coffee machine to make you a caffeinated cup.
 
Also, the last time we saw Sony's adorable little personal home-assistant robot, Xperia Agent, it didn't have a screen on its body. Now it does.
 
The Xperia Agent is still at concept stage, but it's getting more and more smart-home features as it edges towards the production line.
 
Sony showed off how it could now connect to a Nestlé smart coffee machine and serve up a caffeine fix at your command.
 
It's really no more special than pushing a button on a smartphone app and having a connected machine start dripping out coffee, but it's undeniably more fun to see a small robot do so, while dancing along on your counter and blasting out notifications, such as the time and weather.
 
The new display on its belly, along with a built-in camera, also makes two-way video calling possible.
 
Sony envisions the Xperia Agent as a living robotic AI in your family, doling out relevant information, so you can stop looking at your phone so much.
 
Interestingly enough, Sony didn't show off the Agent with any of its magical projection capabilities, as was shown at Mobile World Congress.
 
Since it's still a concept product, Sony reps couldn't tell me what hardware features would make it into the final version (if it ever even makes it out of the concept phase).

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