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RoboSapien
(WowWee Toys)

 
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 Robosapien v2
 

This awesome toy robot uses BEAM technology to do thing that robots thousands of dollars more expensive can't touch. For under US $90 you've got a walking biped robot speaking "caveman". A "female" model that combs "her" hair (and asks you to help) is due out in 2005.. If you aren't satisfied with BEAM, just hack on a computer! (see below)

Robosapien v2

 The new Robosapien V2 carries a higher price tag, but has better senses - an infra-red vision sensor, plus a object-tracking vision system that lets the robot accept an item handed to it. In addition, the robot now has (limited) autonomy. It is bigger and more expensive (~$200 US).
Robopets WowWee has also created two "pets" for Robosapien to interact with - Roboraptor and Robopet. Roboraptor shares some of Robosapien V2 autonomy, and sells for about the same as the original Robosapien. Robopet looks like a cross between a bug and a 1950s communication satellite - and it does many of the things the far more expensive Sony Aibo is cabable of. Both share autonomy and can be controlled by Robosapien V2.
The original Robosapien by Mark Tilden and WowWee toys, the first truly "robotic" toy to become a mass-market item. Both a regular and mini-sized version exist. Robosapien can walk and talk in "caveman", and can be controlled remotely. Use of clever design and BEAM technology allows Robosapien to do things much more expensive robots cannot.

Here's the control for RoboSapien. One of the great things about this robot is that a 10-year old with no training can learn to control it in a couple of minutes.
Some crazy guys at GadgetMadness.com messed with RoboSapien and made the sucker into a pimp-bot. 'Nuf said...Click on the image to the left for an awesome Robosapien video!
They weren't satisfied, so they invited RoboSapien to a pool party...

Hack-A Sapien - German Style

Some crazy German guys ripped off RoboSapien's head and hacked on a PDA with a camera, interfacing the IR port of the PDA with RoboSapien's IR port. Now, the damm thing's autonomous!

Here's the page with the C++ code for this version of Hack-A-Sapien
http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/%7Enimbro/robots.html
   
   
   

 

  
"There is only one condition in which we can imagine managers not needing subordinates, and masters not needing slaves. This would be if every machine could work by itself, at the word of command or by intelligent anticipation."
- Aristotle, from his justification of slavery in Politics