The original Sphero app-enabled robotic ball that I covered two years ago (see earlier post) is lots of fun -- for driving, racing, programming, or messing with toddlers and cats on the floor.
This season's addition is the Star Wars-themed BB-8 App-Enabled Droid (also available from Brookstone).
The BB-8 not only rolls freely under smartphone control, but adds a separate head that floats on top as the body rolls -- physically implementing the computer graphics effect from the movie.
The head actually is attached magnetically, and rolls along the surface of the ball with small wheels -- although it does fall off if you smack into a wall too hard, which also causes the BB-8 to stop and pout.
You can drive the BB-8 from the smartphone app (iOS or Android), and have it perform predefined actions (like shaking its head "yes" and "no").
It's pretty fast, with a top speed of 4.5 mph (7 feet/sec.), although you can set a maximum speed limit for smaller spaces. It communicates over Bluetooth, over a range of up to 100 feet.
You also can set up the BB-8 to patrol autonomously, exploring an area and feeding back sensor information (speed, temperature, graph of motions), although it really is not mapping out the space.
The BB-8 also responds to voice commands ("OK BB-8 -- Wake Up, Go to Sleep, Look Around, Go Explore").
And you can record "virtual holographic videos" in the smartphone app.
The BB-8 is palm-sized at 4 1/2 by 3 inches (11.4 x 7.3 cm), and relatively light at just over 7 ounces. It recharges wirelessly in the charging base for a play time of around an hour.
The BB-8 App-Enabled Droid is generally available for $149.
- See Holiday Gadgets 2015 for more on fun holiday tech.
- And the full article in Princeton's U.S. 1 Newspaper:
Gift Ideas for the Mobile Tech Crowd.
Find the BB-8 App-Enabled Droid on Amazon.com