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WowWee’s Robots Take Over

January 10th, 2008 by Joanna Stern

WowWee had a whole new family of robots here in Vegas.

w2The FlyTech Bladestar is the newest addition to the robot company’s indoor flying robot line and it sure did make the security guards in the Sands pretty angry. Designed to be crash resistant, the Bladestar glides through the air with two wings that spin with helicopter-like movement. Built-in infrared sensors allow the Bladestar flyer to detect and avoid obstacles. I got to fly the guy around a bit, but then an angry Sands guard scolded me. More hot robots after the jump…

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Mr. Personality, no not the 1990’s song by Gillette, was a lot cooler than I expected. A full color LCD screen displaying animated and synchronized facial features correspond to various downloadable personalities. Through advanced infrared and audio sensors, the Mr. Personality robot interacts with his environment and real people by telling them jokes and making conversations. I do have to say that I had a hard time getting him to shut up…

w1By far the coolest robot in the booth was the Rovio, a Wi-Fi enabled robotic webcam that moves in any direction and can be controlled remotely using any web accessible device including a cell phone, video game console, or PC. I loved how the robot can just return to his home dock with its built in NorthStar feature, a smart navigation and positioning system. The PC interface for controlling the guy while you are away from your home is also pretty sleek.

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