The BB-8: All about the spinning robot's system
The gift-giving season is just a few months away, and just as adults need a gift or two, every kid should get the all-new sensation that Sphero came up with: the BB-8.
In collaboration with Disney, Sphero presents the toy droid that took "Star Wars" fans by surprise when it was revealed that BB-8 is no computerized robot, but a real one indeed.
BB-8 is a robot ball that self-balances, gyro-driven, and was built with keyed magnets. One of the magnets is positive, and the other is negative.
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In an interview with Polygon, Sphero co-founder Adam Wilson said, "If you want to just spin the head, it's still the same thing, the sphero inside of there is turning," further explaining that what makes the robot more interesting is that when the head is spun around, the whole mechanism spins, thus giving the robot a new drive to move forward
While some curious fans have tried to look inside the app-enabled toy, there is actually no way to see inside without cracking the outer shell, making the robot one of the most complicated mechanisms yet.
The $80 version, made by Hasbro, is much easier to open and a simplified version of the same mechanism may be seen. However, the $150 version is one that doesn't allow for peeping without feeling bad for the good price dished out if one decides to break the robot down.
Meanwhile, CEO Paul Berberian said in an unreleased document acquired by Fortune that the BB-8 is more than just a super-cute spinning ball. According to the exec, the BB-8's code can actually be used to fire away any object that moves in three dimensions.
"Just because it's connected to a ball, it moves the ball," he said. "But if we were to connect it to anything — a car, a helicopter, a boat, a submarine, a forklift — it's the same command set."
Berberian's statements raised speculations that the supposed toy droid is just the beginning of a more complicated system that Sphero is planning to work on to come up with a small robot that can be associated with moving objects using a smartphone.
