Roboscooper from WowWee bears a striking resemblance to Pixar's WALL-E, except it's real and only costs you $70.. Is there room for two cute garbage collecting robots?

Designing new toy robots is hard…unless you have a major motion picture to base them on. WowWee produces award winning robots for work and play. Their latest creation looks really cool. And by “really cool” I mean “an exact copy of WALL-E“. WowWee’s new Roboscooper is a human-like robot with arms that autonomously rolls around and picks up objects, storing them on its person. Sound like anybody to you? You can also control Roboscooper with a remote, and like many toys from WowWee it comes equipped with a lovable personality and witty remarks. Retailing for around $70 and set to be released this month, the Roboscooper is probably the closest you’ll come to having a fully functional WALL-E of your very own. Check out more pictures below.

WowWee’s no stranger in the retail robot business. We’ve seen it explore practical applications like telepresence (with Rovio) and fun hobbyist platforms (Femisapien). Their new Roboscooper is somewhere in between. It can wander around your house looking for objects with its four IR sensors, autonomously picking up odds and ends like some sort of miniature maid. But the weight restriction (it can’t lift more than about 1 oz) and the appearance of the bot makes me think it’s built to be more lovable than useful. And what could be more lovable than WALL-E? The Roboscooper probably wasn’t meant to be a direct rip-off of Pixar’s blockbuster hit, but you have to think that customers will see and enjoy the resemblance. I certainly think Roboscooper looks cute. And it has one feature WALL-E doesn’t: give it the right command and it goes into “whack” mode ready to bat things around with its big arms. Sounds a little too close to “kill all humans” mode, but hey, what’s fun without a little risk, right? I’m sure WALL-E would agree.

Roboscooper uses IR sensors to autonomously locate objects around your home.

Roboscooper collects objects and pivots to place them on its back.

Lift and set, lift and set. A robot's work can get dull. Luckily Roboscooper is set to come with a witty personality.

[image credits: WowWee]
[source: WowWee]

Why do robots need breasts? Why?!

Wow. Just wow. I’m not sure what it says about robotics, toys, or gender studies, but the new Femisapien from Wowwee is ready to blow your mind with its mechanical wiles. Building on the success of their earlier Robosapien robot, Wowwee’s newest creation includes all the innovations of its predecessors wrapped in a feminine shell. The toy bot stands just 15 inches high but its packed with programmed moves, learning capabilities, and the desire to sing. Some of this you’re just going to have to see for yourself, check out the videos after the break.

I don’t know if the Femisapien is the first step to kinky sex androids, but Wowwee definitely infused the bot with plenty of stereotypical feminine attributes. It can perform a hip swaying runway walk, blow kisses, and sing back up to any radio in range. I’m sure someone in academia is going to write a doctoral thesis on the social implications of a gendered robot, but my guess is that Wowwee intended for Femisapien demeanor to be tongue-in-cheek. Either way, at just $90, the womanly automaton could be the 21st century version of a talking doll.

Despite the female frame, Femisapien is all robot on the inside. It comes with three active modes which a user can access by tilting its head. The Responsive mode is the most general, allowing the bot to walk around, perform programmed routines, and avoid obstacles. In Attentive mode, Femisapien will pose for you, sing back up (called the ‘shoop feature’), dance, talk, and blow kisses. The Learning mode lets you articulate the bot to record an impressive 80 steps of movement. What can you do with 80 steps? Get two robots to fence, apparently:

So when it comes to robots acting feminine I’m not sure what to think. Kitschy? Offensive? Hilarious? Enticing? However you feel about the Femisapien, there’s no doubt that it’s an impressive feat of robotic engineering. Enjoy the robot and its shapely figure if you like. Just don’t enjoy too much. Mmmkay?

*UPDATE: Robert Oschler has added a link to his indepth review of the Femisapien in the comments section. Robert can get the robot to perform some really really great moves. Check it out.

[photo and video credits: Wowwee]

Rovio is set to watch over your house.

The next must-have robot has arrived. Rovio from WowWee is a mobile webcam that uses WiFi to work like a remote security camera on wheels. Access it from anywhere via computer or smart phone and you can explore your home or office with streaming audio and video. Worried about your house while you’re on vacation? Just program Rovio to roam from room to room taking snapshots, and you’ll be able to sleep soundly. Check out a promotional video from WowWee after the break.

There are few examples as fitting as Rovio for demonstrating how humans are building a world of 24-hour hi-tech surveillance. Everywhere we go, we’re going to be watched, especially as people start to use Ugolog. Government security cameras, like the CCTVs failing to stop crime in London, inspire fears of Big Brother. Personal security cameras seem to restore some of the privacy balance by allowing individuals to control the observation in their home or business. In that light, Rovio is an easy, and maybe even fun, way to make the surveillance trend work for you.

WowWee design team hit all the right notes with this device. I was impressed with their handheld projector, but Rovio is even cooler. The robot has omni-directional wheels, a microphone, a speaker, a camera that can adjust to three different angles (straight ahead, slightly lifted, 40° towards the ceiling), and plenty of LED lights for illumination. Battery life is around 2 hours of standard operation.

Even more impressive is the software. Rovio has a fairly intuitive user interface that allows for direct control of the robot. Using IR guidance, it can follow preprogrammed paths and take pictures along the way as instructed. Those photos can then be emailed to you while you are out. With the press of a single button, the robot will self-dock and charge, though accidentally moving the dock will require you to recalibrate the bot. Rovio’s use of waypoints, and streaming audio and video remind me of the prototype iPhone military drone application developed by MIT.

WowWee is also marketing Rovio as a telepresence robot, like Anybots. I’m not sure, however, that it presents any real improvements over traditional webcam conferencing. Being able to have a robot zoom around a table and look your colleagues in the eye sounds interesting but not practical. Also, there’s no screen on Rovio, so people are either going to have to look away towards a TV or place a photo of you on the bot.

Robotic security cameras...will they be used for good or for evil? Or for awesome?

As with any surveillance technology, the opportunities for abuse are threatening. In the case of Rovio, remote access opens the possibility of hacked access into your home. Not a pleasant thought, but hopefully WowWee has taken the time to get its encryption up to task.

If you’re so inclined, you can learn more about Rovio’s capabilities and use by exploring its tutorial videos now playing on this YouTube channel. Before you spend 30 minutes pouring through them, I should reveal the robot’s two greatest weaknesses: stairs and walls. The omni-directional wheels are great, but they’re not made for travel over uneven surfaces, and definitely can’t tackle steps. That’s going to limit the accessible areas in your home unless you start installing a lot of ramps. Walls limit the range of Rovio’s tracking system. So, if you want to use Rovio in more than one room, you’re going to have purchase a few TrueTrack beacons to extend the range.

Rovio retails around $230, but I would definitely budget in another two or three beacons at $30 a piece. That’s a total price tag of a little over $300. Not bad for a remotely accessible spy camera that can explore your home for you while you’re away and then go recharge itself to do it all again tomorrow.

Wowwee's Cinemin Swivel projector is just one of many hand helds using the DLP chip.

When it comes to selling cool gadgets, the best technology doesn’t always win. Sometimes being popular is more important than having the best specifications. That may be true for the upcoming competition in handheld projectors. Singularity Hub recently discussed projectors in mobile phones, and there’s also a growing trend of independent plug and play versions of these devices. Texas Instruments (stock: TXN), Microvision (stock: MVIS), and 3M (stock: MMM) are all competing fiercely to dominate that trend. What strikes me, though, is the sheer number of third party companies that are adopting TI’s DLP™ technology. That chip may have already secured its spot at number one. Check out some product videos after the break.

Just the concept of a hand held projector is cool enough to give a geek the bends, the fact that we could see them in a phone is added awesomeness. As we said before, TI collaborated with Samsung to create both a mobile phone and an independent hand held device (the MBP-200) that use their pico projector. Add to that list Wowwee’s Cinemin™ Swivel, the Optoma Pico PK-101, and a projector from Bug Labs. All have specs that are in the same ballpark as the Samsung MBP-200. Take a small step up in size and you have Acer’s K10 Pico Projector, Toshiba’s TDP-F10U, Dell’s M109S, and the BenQ Joybee GPI. With this many companies using the DLP™ chip, you can bet that someone is going to find the optimized sweet spot of pricing, power, accessories, and advertising. It’s just a matter of time.

While I’ll leave the debate as to which of the DLP™ using projectors is best to the gadget gurus, I do want to point out two unique things. One, the Cinemin™ Swivel has a built-in hinge in its design that allows it to operate without a stand or prop. Cool. If that doesn’t do it for you, they also have a static version (Cinemin™ Stick) and a larger Cinemin™ Station. Second, while most of these projectors are going to cost you above $400, Dell is running a weird promotion to get their projector for $299. Very cool.

Cinemin Swivel Video [please excuse the creepy ambience]

Why should a Singularity Hub reader care about all of this? Well, as I said last time, competition is every tech-geek’s dream come true. It leads to great innovations, cheaper gadgets, and sometimes unexpected break-throughs. The big three companies are going to fight over projector phones (Microvision has a deal with Motorola for a protoype), and if the competition wasn’t enough, now we have all these companies working on the TI DLP technology just on its own.

And the plethora of pico projectors also indicates that the hand held projector trend is a secure one. We’re approaching a day when everyone’s media will not only be personalized but also carried on their person. Smart phones already combine web access, music, and communications. Add in shared video experiences and you’ll turn into a walking media exchange center. Such devices would be about as futuristic as the proverbial jetpack. And they’re just around the corner.

Now, it’s possible that just as a multitude of MP3 players evolved into iPod mania, projectors will find one brand that becomes synonymous with the concept. But in the meantime competition is key. With so many companies supporting DLP™, it may have become a pico-projecting Hydra. Come on Microvision and 3M, there’s room for more than one monster in the game.

Don’t know whether or not a hand held projector is a good buy for you? Maybe this humorous ad for the BenQ Joybee GPI will help: