Do you still remember with Anki, the robotics company that's
founded by three geniuses from Carnegie Mellon University? In the last three
years, they have stolen the attention through Anki Drive and Anki Overdrive,
which is a car racing game that's armed with artificial intelligence.
Anki is now ready to realize its vision to enliven a robot
that has emotions, charisma and can interact with humans. Named Anki Cozmo,
this robot is the result of research and development of a team that has a very
diverse background, ranging from robotics experts, animators, game developers
to Batmobile designers.
Anki Cozmo is a combination of robotics technology and
artificial intelligence. It looks like a robot on the WALL-E movie of Pixar,
and its size is only as big as a fist; but in a second it can process more data
than the entire Mars Rover robots of NASA.
Anki Cozmo's uniqueness lies in its charisma. Armed with
computer vision technology and emotion engine, Cozmo can recognize and remember
your face and name. The more you interact with Cozmo, the closer the robot with
you. The expression on its face will be different when it's seeing a new person
and the people who have been familiar with it.
Cozmo can give a complex expression based on its emotion at
the time. If you've ignored it for too long, the robot will be a bit sullen.
Cozmo will invite you to play around with a number of activities that can be
accessed via smartphone app.
To start playing with Cozmo, users don't need to assemble
various components. Cozmo can be activated via the app on iOS or Android
devices. Funnily, when it's being recharged, you will hear the sound of
snoring.
Anki is now accepting Cozmo pre-orders for $ 160. According
to the plan, Cozmo will be sold widely starting in October with a retail price
of $ 180.