ROBOTS DREAMS

The Robot Sleeps Tonight (Video)

A couple years ago, when the original Robosapien robot, created by Mark Tilden, went on sale, there were no third party products. Actually, at that point, no one outside of the WowWee Robotics labs knew enough about the robot to even begin hacking it, or creating new software and accessories for it.

We bought one, and are very glad we did. Figuring out how to control it from our PC was a significant challenge that taught us a lot, though we wouldn't want to try doing it from scratch again. Fortunately now there are several million of the popular Robosapien robots out there, along with other robots in the series, like the RoboRaptor, and RoboPet. And, there are a number of third party solutions for Robosapien fans and addicts to chose from.

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.

Amazon Runs An Amazing 70% Roboreptile Robot Discount Christmas Special

We have no idea how long Amazon will be running this last minute Christmas special, but one of their December 22nd "Friday Sale" promotional items is a 70% discount on the extremely popular WowWee RoboReptile robot. We just checked out their website, and they claim to have the product in stock and that they can deliver.

Many thanks to Robert at RobotsRule for the heads-up.

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.

RoboReptile Captured On Camera (Video)

Ever since we first heard that Mark Tilden, the head of the WowWee Robotics group and creator of the best selling Robosapien robot, planned to introduce a new robotic reptile we couldn't wait to get our hands on one. According to some of the early news reports Tilden's RoboReptile creation is a major departure from his earlier friendly robot creations known for their ability to dance, burp, make semi-crude remarks, and even fart on command. This time around we were lead to believe that Tilden was going to set loose an aggressive, relentless, attacking demon that might scare some people, or even trigger some nightmares.

Thanks to the generosity of Robert Roschler, publisher of the Robots Rule website and forums, we didn't have to wait until the new robot hit the shelves here in Japan. Robert has created an excellent 3+ minute video review of the RoboReptile and has given us permission to share it with all our readers.

RoboReptile Robot Uncloaked

Some of us just like to play with robots. Others love to build them. Still others seem to live just to tear them apart and see what makes them tick. The new RoboReptile robot from WowWee only recently hit store shelves in a small number of countries, but dedicated fans not only ran out to buy a few, some of them have completely disassembled their new treasures, and have professionally documented what they found.

RoboReptile Robot User Reviews Starting To Appear

As we mentioned in a previous post, the RoboReptile robot is hitting store shelves in a few, limited countries, and it's likely to be quite a while before it becomes available here in Japan. Thankfully the folks that have already been lucky enough to snag one of the robots are starting to post detailed accounts of their experiences, including what they like and don't like. If you're considering buying one of the new robots, then you will definitely want to check out the extensive and detailed RoboReptile review posted on the Unofficial Robosapien Hacks and Mods Forum by Iguana from Sydney, Australia.

RoboReptile Invasion Delayed A Bit

Apparently the report that the new RoboReptile would be released 'world wide' this week was a little premature. The official release schedule that was recently posted on the RoboReptile website shows the new robot already available in Singapore and Taiwan. The New Zealand debut listed is June 26th, followed by Australia in early July, then several (but not all) European countries sometime in September. No mention is made of the UK, France, or US market release dates. [Thanks Carl]

RoboReptile Has Australian Roots

Creative artists and inventors find inspiration all around them, and robot designers are no different. According to a story just published in "The Sunday Mail", Mark Tilden, the creator of some of the world's best selling robots like the Robosapien and Roboraptor, found his inspiration for the new RoboReptile while watching television.

A Gathering of Robots (Video Link)

NY1 - New York City’s “24–Hour Newschannel On The Web” has been running an interesting series of articles on the latest in consumer technology. The Valentine’s Day post and video (see links below) focus on robots like Robonova-1, LEGO Mindstorm NXT system, the P.E.A. BOT, and other new robot technology.

Roboreptile Robot Photos and Video Surface in France

The folks over at evolutionshops.com in France must have an inside track to Mark Tilden and the WowWee Robotics organization because they keep turning up new photos, videos, and seem to actually have been playing with a few of the newest robots like the Roboreptile.

Roboraptor Fails To Win "Most Innovative" Award

The International Toy Fair opened this morning in blizzard conditions in New York. According to our sources at the event, the award for "Most Innovative Toy of the Year" went to the FLY Pentop Computer from LeapFrog Enterprises. The Roboraptor, which was one of the best selling toys world wide during 2005, did well but faced strong competition from the FLY, Air Hogs Zero Gravity, Iz, and the VUGO Player.

RoboReptile Looks Like An Awesome Robot

The French blog, “Robosapien le blog” just posted a great new photo of the RoboReptile, scheduled to hit the store shelves early this summer.

Will Tilden And WowWee Robots Win Again?

The American International Toy Fair 2006 is a little more than a week away. Last year, the original Robosapien robot walked away with the "Most Innovative Toy of the Year" award. This year, the Roboraptor is in the running for the same award.

A Little Attention To Lighting Makes A Huge Difference

Lighting plays a huge part in the effect achieved by a video. Sure, you can video your robot doing something cool and everyone will be impressed. But pay just a little more attention to the lighting and magic happens, especially when you use it to add some drama and excitement to the video like the Roboraptor video by ‘yupko’ shown below.

Abbe Normal Robot (Video)

Remember the classic scene in ‘Young Frankenstein’ where Igor (Marty Feldman) is being questioned by Young Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) about the monster’s brain. . . Abbe Normal. . . Abbe Normal. . .

So, what would the robotic equivalent be? We discovered, much to our surprise and delight, earlier this afternoon.

Mark Tilden Demonstrates Roboraptor (Video)

Was a Roboraptor robot under your Christmas tree? Had fun playing with it? Wondering if your robot is really doing all the wonderful things it was designed to do? Check out the video clip below with Mark Tilden demonstrating the Roboraptor.

Christmas Dinosaur Rock (Video)

The time: Christmas morning, 2005
The place: Granny and Grandpa’s, Edinburgh
The dancers: Two brand new Roboraptor robots
The mood: Rocking!
Our rating:

Chat with the Robot

One of the reasons we like robots so much is that they present us with endless opportunities to learn and create new things, and have a tremendous amount of fun doing it. One of our friends, and premier robot hacker from ‘the land downunder’, Sprocket2cog, must feel the same way because he’s just rolled out the alpha version of sapienCHAT.

On The Boards: Robosapien Humor

The Robosapien online forums (there are quite a few of them now) tend to be meeting places for dedicated robot hackers to hang out and exchange their latest projects, successes and failures, and share technical information about circuit, sensor, and motor hacks. Recently however, some of the posters have been showing a real sense of humor and creativity.

Rainbow Robots!

Tired by your mono-tone, plain vanilla robot? Have an uncontrollable urge to paint your Robopet to match your car, or your room? How about a three-tone, vivid Roboraptor? Or a . . .

Robert Does It Again! (Video)

First Robert Oschler wowed all of us by developing the Robosapien Dance Machine software that gave users the ability to control their Robosapien robot from their PC, and create action (dance) sequences. Then he raised the ante by adding voice recognition control. Now he’s in the process of expanding it yet again – this time to control all of the WowWee Robotics robots – and he’s allowed us to share a video with you that really shows off what his system can do.

A Little Robot Humor

Sprocket2cog is well known and respected among "The League Of Robot Hackers." All of us read his blog faithfully, and are frequently surprised and delighted by his fearless hacking and creativity. But, we wondered how his poor robots feel when they become unsuspecting victims on his operating table. So, we decided to ask the subject of one of his most recent hacks. . .

CNN CES Video Coverage Includes LEGO NXT and Roboreptile

CNN’s Renay San Miguel was at the CES show in Las Vegas last week, and one of his video segments included a short peek at both the new LEGO NXT system, and the WowWee Robotics Roboreptile in action.

More CES Photos Of The WowWee Robots

Attendees at the CES show have started to upload some of their photos to the flickr.com website. Scanning through the recently uploaded photos we found several photos of the P.E.A.Bot and Roboreptile (see list of links after the break.)

Takes One To Control One!

Pavel Petrovic and Richard Balogh have managed to figure out how to control a Robopet using IR signals they send from – are you ready for this? – a LEGO Mindstorms RCX roving robot! With a little encouragement and nudging from Robot Robert Roschler, the designer of the Robosapien Dance Machine, they not only managed to crack the code, they’re sharing it openly on their website.

More On The New Robosapien Trio

One nice thing about the CES show is that exhibitors get bombarded over and over again by the press, analysts, and curious customers. So, as the show wears on, the exhibitors wear down, and sooner or later they let more and more information slip. . .

More On The WowWee Sneak Preview

Mark Tilden, the inventor of the Robosapien, has a long standing relationship with Solarbotics, and is in regular contact with the staff there. He recently shared some information with Knitsu about the next generation robots that were sneak previewed at the CES show.

WowWee or WowWhat?

CES – the Consumer Electronics Show has turned into the premier PR event of the year. Be there, or be square. You’re either there with something new and amazing to announce, or the press assumes that your company is rapidly fading away. So it wasn’t surprising to hear that Wowwee Robotics was giving a ‘sneak preview’ at the show – though the robot designs that were previewed seem really puzzling. . .

How About A Tap Dancing Robot Dinosaur?

When I was a kid (yeah - that long ago), it was really cool to buy metal taps and attach them to the soles of your shoes. I couldn't dance - still can't - but that was beside the point. With those taps on my shoes everyone at school was absolutely convinced that I must be able to tap dance - why else would I have spent the money to buy taps?

Mark Tilden On The Gadget Show

Mark Tilden, the father of the Robosapien, Robosapien V2, Roboraptor, and Robopet was interviewed by The Gadget Show - a great technology television program broadcast in the UK. But viewers outside of the UK weren't able to watch, but dedicated Robosapien fans  never let a little problem like that stand in their way. . .

Roboraptor On The Front Page

Firebox, one of the most interesting and exciting online retailers of unique toy and gift items, is currently featuring the Roboraptor robot in the most prominent position on their home page.

Roboraptor and Zoids - Separated At Birth?

Zoids came along way after I graduated from high school, struggled through college, and was busy raising my own family, but at least my children got to play with them and enjoy them. Now, many years later, I'm playing with my new Roboraptor and Robopet, and I get the strange feeling that somewhere, someplace, I've seen them before.

Roboraptor Makes It To Japan

We weren’t sure that any of the 2nd generation WowWee robots would make it to the store shelves here in Japan before Christmas, but as it turns out, the Roboraptor has already turned up for sale on the ToysRUs Japan website.

RoboArmy On The Move! Enlist Now!

The RoboArmy’s on the move! We’ve already got outposts on three continents (is Oz a continent or just a big island? I forget), and the forces are massing. The RoboArmy even has it’s own dedicated SWAT team of deep RoboHackers.

 

Zapped By A Raptor

How fast can a raptor run?

Apparently the answer is at the speed of light, or pretty darn close to it! That was demonstrated to us this Friday afternoon when a raptorlicious idea zipped from the US to Japan, out on to the internet, down to Australia, back out on to the internet, and back to Japan to hit us full in the face!

Battle Raptors!

Mark Tilden and his elves did a wonderful job designing the Roboraptor as a ‘toy’ robot, one that’s a lot of fun, yet safe enough to let your 8 year old play with in the living room.

But come on! This is a RAPTOR! It should be ripping, tearing, and going for the throat! And, recent reports from Roboraptor hackers indicate that will be possible sooner than you think.

Roboraptor Nose Sensors (Video)

There was some discussion on one of the forums about the optical sensors in Roboraptor’s nose. Of course we couldn’t possibly pass up the opportunity to drag our favorite robot off to the lab to take a closer look.

Exploring Roboraptor's Moods (Video)

Roboraptor has three very different moods - Playful, Cautious, and Hunting. His behavior in each mood is considerably different - especially when you rub his chin, or he senses some tasty prey close by. The Roboraptor manual mentions this briefly, but leaves it up to you to explore and figure out his moods for yourself. Being the incredibly curious, and never able to leave well enough alone, we hauled Roboraptor off to our Robotics Lab for a little up-close-and-personal testing.

Roboraptor Proves Cats Are Smarter Than Dogs (Videos)

Carl received his Roboraptor in late June, and documented his first impressions in great detail even down to photos of the mounting screw heads. He also posted three videos, the last one clearly showing that his cat is much, much smarter than our dogs!

 

Roboraptor Sensor Hack - Sneak Preview from Sprocket2cog

Sprocket2cog, one of the most creative and adventure-some RoboHackists I know, is working on a new Roboraptor hack to modify the tail sensors and add a tilt sensor. He teased everyones curiosity by posting the image below that discloses some of the Roboraptor tail internals and gives some clues about his upcoming hack.

What Happens When Roboraptors and Robopets Start to Breed?

Grant, who recently left Solarbotics and landed the job of a lifetime working for WowWee Robotics in Hong Kong, posted a great photo of the 'RaptorPet' on his BEAM page.

Roboraptor Rules The Roost (Video)

It was raining today, so since we were going to be inside - why not use the opportunity to find out more about our new Roboraptor? We took him upstairs, turned him on, put him in to roaming mode, and recorded the action... [video below]

Roboraptor Plays! (Video)

We wanted to see if Roboraptor really could play with other animals, and fool them into thinking that it was actually alive. The test was easy enough to stage – the Roboraptor, one of our dogs, the dogs favorite toy, and a video camera. It didn’t take long before we were convinced that the Roboraptor is everything that Tilden and WowWee claim it to be. Take a look at the video below and see what you think.

Roboraptor On The Operating Table - Hacks and Mods

Shawn, aka Sprocket2cog, has come up with some really nice Roboraptor hacks, and he’s been kind enough to document them with detailed photos and step by step instructions. Obviously, doing something like this requires some level of skill with a screw driver, other tools, and a willingness to violate your warranty.

RoboRaptor Makes It To Japan!

My Roboraptor finally arrived on my doorstep Saturday afternoon, and was waiting patiently when I came home in the evening. There are a few initial photos below, and course more photos and videos to come as I start to really dig in and discover what the Roboraptor is about, and how it can be hacked.

Most Wanted List

The FBI has their list of Most Wanted criminal suspects, Interpol keeps a similar list, so, why not have a Most Wanted robots list?

#1	#2	#3	#4
Robosapien V2, the latest gang member, is reported to tower over and intimidate his enemies. He has been known to toss objects around when provoked, and practices kung fu type moves with ease.	Robopet does all the undercover work for the robo-gang. Often masquerading as a loveable pet, he can quickly shift his personality from huggable to hostile, frequently lifting his leg on unsuspecting victims.	Roboraptor is the robo-gang enforcer, always on the alert with a keen ear for any tell tale sound or movement, ready to pounce. Although he has a beautiful smile, it masks a set of predator's teeth.	Robosapien, the founder of the robo-gang and defacto robo-Godfather, has a very unusual,  commanding way of walking. He often goes dancing. Beware, his trademark High-5 greeting can instantly turn into a karate chop.

Robosapien V2 at Amazon

For some unknown reason - at least unknown to me - the Robosapien V2 is appearing on the Amazon website for pre-order in the 'Electronics' category while all the other Robosapien products are listed under toys. This may have something to do with the third party channels, like Toys 'R Us that use Amazon to reach a broader customer base.

Robosapiens Family Blog

My wife thinks that I am a technology and robotics geek, and in some respects she's probably right. Still, compared to the web-master of the "Home of Robosapiens" blog, I'm very small potatoes. The latest post on his (her?) blog includes a Robosapiens family portrait with 15 Robosapiens (10 full size plus 5 mini's) and a Roboraptor!

The site is definitely worth the time to check out just for the photo collection alone. There are lots of really funny photos and Robo-madness.

A Home of Robosapiens

Inside The Roboraptor

Well, I’m still waiting impatiently to get my hands on one, but Pinkster in Brisbane, Australia not only has hers already, she’s even ripped it open and is designing potential hacks-

Unofficial Robosapien Hacks and Mods Forum - Want to see whats inside a roboraptor???

Roboraptor Hacks

Mayson1 is a real, dyed in the wool Robosapien and Roboraptor hacker.

The site includes several different hacks along with lots of photos and a few videos. One of the most interesting is a wireless camera harness that Mayson1 designed for the Roboraptor. Simple, straight forward, yet very useable and easy to hack together.

Home of MAYSON1 (Robosapien)