Patrolling with Rovio

Rovio is another product from WowWee, the company behind RoboSapien and many others. We're used to see good products coming out of this company, and Rovio seems to be one of them.
Rovio is, of course, a robot, but not the kind of robots we discussed so far. It's not an humanoid, it looks more like a futuristic car. It has 3 wheels and their unique design allows Rovio to move in any direction effortlessly.

Looking at Rovio's features we find resemblances with Spykee, both being robotic sentries that wander the house, remotely controlled by a software application. Although technically similar, their target market is different. Spykee is clearly for kids, but Rovio can easily be and adult geek toy.
Rovio has a mounted webcam (that can tilt up and down), microphone and speaker. With it you can patrol (or spy) the house and interact with other people (or pets). We could say it's a webcam with wheels! In fact, Rovio seems like a good candidate as a VOIP client. Of course, the webcam angle may not be the best to talk to another person. It may be tricky to focus on their face, unless they're sitting on the floor. But it sure can be funny.
Apart from person interaction, Rovio can be used to patrol you house. You can define a route and Rovio will follow it, sending you pictures to your email.
As with other automated robots, Rovio has a base where it can be recharged. Fortunately, Rovio knows how to feed himself, meaning that he knows where the base is, and move there when the batteries are low.
As said before, Rovio comes with a software that gives you full control over Rovio's functions. This software can be run from any computer, as long as it has Internet access. You can control and see Rovio's webcam from anywhere in the world. For this to happen, Rovio has an internal WiFi antenna that connects it to the Internet, thus allowing access from the bundled software.
Rovio can be seen as a toy or as a simple security gadget. Either way, it looks cool.

(Image from www.robotsrule.com)

Robonova - more than a simple robot toy

Robonova (picture on the left taken from Hitec) is a small sized robot from Hitec. It's not your usual robotic toy, it doesn't even look like a toy. Instead it looks like something from an investigation lab. The reason for this might be because Robonova can be bought as a kit. You then have to build the robot yourself, using nothing more than a screwdriver, which makes it quite easy to build (no soldering, etc). The building part can be more rewarding than the finished robot itself. It's also a great education resource that might spark a kid's interest in robotics.
Robonova can also be bought pre-assembled, and although it's fun to build it, it's also fun to play with it. You can control it to walk, run, dance and even do cartwheels. And the best it's that it can be customized to the way you like. You can buy later on, different modules that can be easily attached to Robonova, expanding its capabilities.
For example, here's some of the sensors that can be added to Robonova:

• distance sensor
• light sensor
• touch sensor
• sound sensor
• gyroscope
• tilt sensor
• sound synthesizer
  

All of these can then be programmed with the supplied RoboScript programming software. The programming language should be easy to grasp to anyone willing to learn and make the robot act the way you like it. There's even an easier way to program Robonova. It's a feature called Catch & Play. With it, you can move the robot into any position (of the arm, leg, etc) and record that position, then choose another position and record it, etc. You can then link all those movements together, resulting in a smooth transition.
By using any of the optional modules, the limit is your imagination. You can program it to say something if anyone touches it, or detect if it's laying down and get back up again, detect objects, etc. Exploring all the possibilities is what makes the whole experience fun.

Spykee, the spy robot

Spykee is an innovative robot by Meccano with some cool features. It's a remote controlled robot that can play sounds and, more interesting, record sound and video. That doesn't seem so much this far. However, the cool part is: it's controlled by software on a remote pc. Connection is done by wifi. So, in other words, this means you can control Skypee from anywhere in the world through the internet. You can now spy on your cat whenever you like.
You can also use it as intruder detector, as it has a motion detection sensor. And it can even be programmed to send a photo to your email, when it detects movement.
It can also read mp3, which is nice if you are near it. If you're controlling it remotely, trying to detect some intruder...well, if you cannot kill the intruder with some laser, at least you can torture him with some awful music. Or maybe scaring him away with some Hitchcock theme.
Lastly, and very important in these kind of robots: it has an auto-recharge feature. This means it will return automatically to his recharging dock when battery is low.
Although it's clearly a toy intended for kids, the feature list is quite interesting. If everything works as well as it is described by Meccano, it might even be appealing to grownups.

Erector Spykee - Buy from Amazon

Robosapien robotic toy

Robosapien is one of the most well-known robotic toys. It's a remote-controlled robot that both kids and adults may find entertaining. It can do lots of movements (walk, dance, move arms, pick up objects), all fully controlled by the remote. The remote is a little overwhelming at first, packed with so many buttons. However, it allows, not only for controlling the robot manually, but also to make it do certain pre-programmed actions.

Robosapien has an internal speaker and a cool voice. Not only it speaks, it makes sounds like farting and kung-fu sounds.
However, the best part about about this robotic toy is its sensors. It can react to touch and even sound. For example, it can dance to the beat of music. Or stand-up if its laying down.
Robosapien is also programmable. It can be programmed to react (make some movement or talk) when you touch it. It can even react to voice commands. The limit is really your imagination.