A few months ago, we told you about a cute little robot that may be the signal of a new generation of AI-powered devices that could change the consumer robotic landscape. Well, Cozmo is now ready to come out and play with whomever wants a cute, robot companion that will hopefully not become sentient someday and take over your life. We kid. But we’re not kidding about how this tiny machine can entertain and amuse those who have a hundred dollars or so to spare.
Calling it “a small bot with a big brain and an even bigger personality”, Cozmo’s makers are Anki, a consumer robotics and artificial intelligence company. And they have created a tiny companion that you can play with and also to some extent, relate with. In order for it to learn more about its human companion, you would need to play with it a lot. And if you ignore it for some time, it will actually playfully (hopefully, just playfully) nudge you to spend some time with it and its games. You will need the Cozmo app on your Android device to be able to choose which games to play, but it also comes with its own toys, like his three interactive Power Cubes.
Cozmo isn’t just a robot to play with, but he also has personality to boot. It is shown through facial expressions, emotions, and even his own voice and language. He has a camera on the front of his OLED face so he can also recognize familiar faces and lights up when it does. He will also be able to “make decisions” depending on his mood. His brain can process more data per second than “all the Mars Rovers combined”.
You will now be able to buy Cozmo, which comes with a base charger and three interactive Power Cubes, for just $179.99. It’s available at major US retailers like Toys R Us, Best Buy, Amazon.com, etc. You can download the Cozmo app from the Google Play Store for free. You can also get a Cozmo Software Development Kit Beta in case you want to play around with the software behind it.
SOURCE: Anki
