ROBOTS DREAMS - Robot news and robot hacks from a true robot geek

Femisapien/EMA: A Great Robot Concept Still Waiting For Success

Every robot designer loves their own creations, at least at the beginning, and they often find it difficult to understand why other people aren’t as enraptured with the beauty and wonder of the robot they gave birth to. Still, at the end of the day the bottom line is to create products that customers relate to enough that they feel compelled to open their wallets and give us their hard earned cash or plastic.

If we’re really lucky, and really creative, then we can repeat the process over and over again, using the profits from this product generation to build the next one. And, our customers will be so delighted with our products that they will automatically come back to buy more and more.

Robo-IRT Makes Controlling the i-SOBOT a Breeze

As much as we’re devoted to the larger humanoid robots, we have to admit that they’re a bit expensive. At the same time, we love the lower cost robots like the TOMY i-SOBOT and the WowWee Robosapien types. But their remote controls are frequently complex and difficult to use, and editing a robot program usually turns out to be an exercise in frustration.

The best way to get around the remote control/programability challenge has been the free RoboDance software application. It’s loaded with great functionality and is extremely easy to use, even for a pure novice. It’s only drawback has been that you have to purchase a special IR transmitter to send the software commands to your robot. Thankfully a new, low cost transmitter, appropriately named “Robo-IRT” has hit the market.

The Happy Couple... of Robots

Well, it looks like Christmas came a little early, at least for this robot loving home. The happy robot couple pictured above joined our collection a few days ago, and we've been having an absolute blast exploring their features and foibles. Needless to say, we'll be posting some detailed reports and videos featuring both the Tri-Bot and Femisapien robots from WowWee.

EMA Female Robot Way Overpriced Here

EMA (Eternal Maiden Actualization), the female "Femisapien" robot designed by WowWee and marketed in Japan by Sega Toys, it ready to hit stores here next month. According to the local Amazon website, he surprisingly agile humanoid robot will go on sale September 25, and is priced at 18,900 yen - or slightly under USD$200. While we understand the need for some price premium due to changes to meet local safety requirements and documentation localization, Sega seems to have gone way overboard with EMA's pricing. The same WowWee robot, named the Femisapien outside of Japan, can be easily purchased for under USD$80.

About a week ago, we had the chance to play with one of the EMA robots on display at a big electronics superstore, and were very impressed. Its mobility and design were quite a bit better than we imagined. It would make a perfect addition to our collection of robot humanoids, but not at over double the US price. As much as the Japanese public loves, and goes bananas for robots, EMA isn't likely to pick up many fans here, outside of the small circle of robot fans that have seemingly unlimited budgets and credit cards.

Robot Lion Skinned and Autopsied

Dedicated robot hackers are never content to leave well enough alone. They feel compelled to dissect, hack, and mod any semi-defenseless piece of electronics that will hold still long enough for them to crack it open. For them, that's when the real fun begins.

Grandlarseny37, over on the Robocommunity forums, certainly feels that way. They just posted Part 1 of a multi-part Dissection of the WowWee Alive Lion Cub. So far, the helpless cub has been skinned, had its tail pulled, and was subjected to other indignities. Part 2 is promised to be 'Coming Soon'...

Many thanks to Robert for alerting us.

Severe Robot Induced Flashback! (Video)

When we received Robert Oschler's review of the new Femisapien robot (see video below) from WowWee there was an immediate, and overwhelming sense of flashback to the 1960's, but we couldn't quite figure out why. Then, late last night, when we should have been sleeping, it suddenly hit us. Robert's passionate devotion to robots in general, and specifically to WowWee white plastic humanoids brought back memories of the late Frank Zappa (think Mothers of Invention). Robert's obsession was captured perfectly, more than 40 years in advance - probably before Robert was even born, by Zappa in his classic song "WOWIE ZOWIE".

"Wowie Zowie
Your love's a treat
Wowie Zowie
You can't be beat
Wowie Zowie, baby
You're so neat
I don't even care
If you shave your legs

Wowie Zowie, baby
You're so fine
Wowie Zowie, baby
Please be mine
Wowie Zowie
Up and down my spine
I don't even care
If you brush your teeth"
 

So, from here on out, we have dubbed Robert with the title of "Wowie Zowie", and challenge him to create an appropriate, and totally over the top, parody music video.

Santa Must Have Delivered A Lot Of Robots (Video)

Christmas has come and gone, but from the number of video clips showing up on popular video sharing sites like YouTube and Google Video, Santa's sleigh must have been totally overloaded with the popular Roboreptile robots from WowWee. A quick search on YouTube turned up numerous videos including one that featured a baby teething on the robot, another one where it scares the heck out of a cat and dog, yet another with it trying to climb on top of a floor vacuum, and lots of others.

Our favorite video of the bunch (see below), at least so far, has the robot exploring an office area, attempting to mate with a door, getting its head stuck between a door and the door jam, and then attacking a computer like there's no tomorrow.

RoboReporter Contest Prize: A Free Discovery Chromashift Roboreptile Robot

To kick off the new RoboReporter robot news website, Robert, the site publisher, is staging a contest and the Discovery Channel's online store has put up a Chromashift Roboreptile robot that will go to the contest winner. The RoboReporter concept is very simple and straight forward. If you like Digg, then you're probably going to love this new site. Registration is free and open to all comers. Registered participants submit new robotics related news stories, which are then 'voted-on' by other readers. The more popular stories quickly find their way to the top of the pile.

According to the RoboReporter contest rules, the Chromashift Roboreptile robot will go to the member that submits the highest number of valid posts during the month of November. You do have to reside in either the US or Canada - which unfortunately leaves us out of the competition.

So, don't just sit there. Get your browser over to the RoboReporter website, read the rules, register, and then start submitting pointers to new and exciting robot developments. They don't have to be about the Roboreptile or even a Robosapien - any robot related news story will be considered. Who knows? You might be lucky enough to take home a brand new Roboreptile robot.

Robosapien RSMedia Hits Store Shelves in Oz

Australia is great place to roll out new technology. The people really seem to enjoy and appreciate the latest and greatest gadgets, they are used to paying a little more for imported technology, and they don't hesitate to give feedback about what they like and what they don't. Best of all - it's fairly remote and isolated, so if a new product unexpectedly falls flat on its face, the damage is minimal.

WowWee seems to be consistently using Australia as the test market for their latest robots. On Tuesday (October 10th), they introduced the new Robosapien RSMedia in Sydney complete with a host of well known Australian entertainment and sports personalities. It's going to be interesting to see how well the Oz market warms to the new robot, and how it impacts the introduction schedule for other countries.

Robosapien RSMedia Website Goes Live

 
Although the new Robosapien RSMedia robot designed by Mark Tilden won't hit store shelves until sometime in January, 2007, WowWee has already started to build some enthusiasm and awareness around it. Tilden has been showing it off, along with the RoboReptile, to the press in Europe, and a few days ago, the new RSMedia Official Website went live.  

The website is worth a visit, especially if you're a Robosapien fan. In addition to some general overviews and features lists, it also contains the full RSMedia user manual for the robot. We spent about an hour reading through the manual, and all we can say is 'complex'. It runs around 70 pages with table after table after table of listings showing all the button combinations necessary to get the robot to do what you want. Unfortunately the manual doesn't address a lot of our open questions - it probably shouldn't - so we'll have to wait until we can test and review the robot first hand.