![]() Vector provides a glimpse into the very beginnings of an accessible, intelligent and connected home robot that’s fun to have around the house.From C-3PO and R2-D2 through to Johnny 5 and Wall-E we have long since had a fascination with robots that hold a good sense of humour, the combination of cheeky behaviour and superior intelligence makes for a great companion. He’s small - perhaps four inches long and three inches tall - and isn’t yet taking full advantage of his cloud connection or onboard machine learning. Additionally - and this is the part I’m most excited about - Anki is releasing an SDK in the coming months for Vector so you can extend his capabilities yourself if you know how to code in Python.įor now, Vector is a bit of a novelty. And the first big feature the company plans to add is Amazon Alexa integration, which will add gobs of usefulness. Vector doesn’t really like that he prefers sunshine in the forecast.Īnki is working on additional functionality, which is made easier because Vector is always connected to the cloud via Wi-Fi. We love to ask him the weather because he reacts to it: On a rainy day, you’ll see clouds and rain drops over his eyes. His display will show that information as well. You can ask him for certain bits of information such as the weather and the time, both of which he’ll speak aloud. Vector is very much a companion right now, more so than a robot with tons of utility. ![]() And he’s really happy when you ask him for a fist bump and then give him one. He often raises his arms quickly to make gestures of happiness too. When you play with Vector, his eyes look around and light up. He even purrs a few times like a cat after that. ![]() ![]() When he goes to his charger, he makes a little happy sound and then his eyes droop to appear like he’s sleeping. His moves, sounds, and facial expressions are in a word: cute. Plus it brings a world of potential.įrom a fun factor, Vector’s animations were created with input from Pixar. And at this price point, that’s impressive. Of course, when Vector is in use or wandering about he’s actually mapping his environment as well. “There he goes again! I wonder what he’s doing?” she’ll say when Vector decides he’s been bored for one millisecond too long. My wife, who is generally not wowed by technology in general, actually loves this aspect. Sure, they’re not very exciting things - he may go explore his surroundings or play with his (included) cube - but it’s fascinating to see he just wander off his charging station, making little sounds and rolling around as if curious. Vector will respond to voice commands but he also does things on his own. It’s this combination of radio chips and the processor that brings a bit of autonomy to Vector, something Cozmo didn’t have. He has a Snapdragon 200-level chip, a capacitive touch sensor, a beamforming, 4-microphone array, 120-degree wide angle HD camera, four drop sensors, an IR laser scanner with three-foot range, a 6-axis gyroscope/accelerometer, color IPS display, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi radios. Inside, however, Vector has quite a bit of smarts and connectivity. From the outside, you can’t really tell the difference between the new Vector and the old Cozmo model. What makes Vector interesting to me is that all of the processing power has moved from a smartphone app - which is how Cozmo worked - directly into the robot. Anki introduced Vector as a Kickstarter project so I got my little robot for $199 it’s available now online and in retail locations for the full suggested price. So let’s do that, starting with the $249 Anki Vector, a follow up to Anki’s Cozmo that launched two years ago.
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