Anki, the toy maker company, launched a tiny robot especially for kids named Cozmo. The robot similar to this was Zenbo robot when first came in the market; became famous as it was the very first smart companion next to Buddy. The robot with a design similar to Wall-E became one best friend to you and your children. But, such robot could not do one or more task for you in a single time. Cozmo robot could generate not great but partial fun for your child.
This Monday, Anki released Cozmo, which awakens just with a tap on your device that imitates humans according to the situation. Cozmo is not the very first toy manufactured by Anki, before this, Super Truck, Overdrive, Expansion Cars and Super balloons were built. Cozmo was built after the success generated from these super toys. Cozmo is capable of express emotions, play retro games and could be said as next gen smart robot.
Priced at just $180, pre-order price is $160; the robot is small enough to fit on your hand, comes with small CRT screen and emotion engine. Cozmo is perfect to be your companion as it can illustrate more than hundreds of emotions based on the AI used by the company. Some emotions include happiness, sadness, confidence, excitement and other.
What Cozmo can do?
As Cozmo is a toy, what it can do is limited. As it is a mini robot, there is no stopping of this toy but, the things it can do are limited to fun only.
• Express Emotion
Cozmo is better rated because it can display and express emotion according to the situation. These emotions include happiness, sadness, confidence, anger and the most fascination one; it snores as it sleeps.
Cozmo is designed to play, and it does not learn from you; instead, it will get along with you whatever you do. Also, it speaks robotic voice, which is installed by dubbing.
• Play Game
As a toy, this robot always tries to generate fun around. Cozmo would not just sit along with you; it needs fun. It creates fun on its own. The robot can pledge retro brick games on its own, and can make the fun situation on its own. So, we can call it self-aware being. So, it is categorised as an intelligent creature.
The developer team of Cozmo stated that the toys in the modern world should be robotic or with AI. The long trend of remote control and big boy’s toys are outdated. The only way to bring change in this trend is to come up with an idea to change. Cozmo is comparable with the ability similar to lab robotics.
Further, they also explained that robots with sophisticated AI are used only in projects like Project Mars, or for the industrial purpose. Most of the consumers do not get in touch with the robots. To remove such fraction, Cozmo is built.
The company employed Maya, a tool for rendering animation for the actions by a robot. Not only that but the team also wrote and modified the software to design the robot. As Maya is animation making software and does not comply with manufacturing robot, this change was made. The sound that Cozmo imitates is the sound wave of a person converted into a dynamic robotic soundtrack.
Cozmo robot is controllable through IOS or Android supporting device. The robot should enough charge left to operate. The battery backup lasts not more than 1.5 hours from 8 minutes of charge. The company has been now planning to release SDK, in particular for developers.