wowwee

When the folks from WowWee visited CNET UK the other day, we were amused to hear them refer to their robotic wares Rovio, Joebot, and RoboRover as "he" and "him." But dang it if we weren't doing the same within five minutes of seeing the little fellas trundling about, flashing their lights, and generally charming their servos off.

Read more of "WowWee Rovio, Joebot, Cinemin and RoboRover: Red-hot robot action" at Crave UK.

Robots may be the eventual downfall of the human race, but for now, most are either cute or useful. One that exists in both categories has spent the last week lurking quietly in a darkened corner of my house, watching my every move. Did I mention I'm happy about this?

The robot in question is the Rovio, which made its debut at last year's Consumer Electronics Show. From an Internet-connected computer, you can drive the $250 robot around your house, watch it from the built-in camera, and talk to people in your house through the mic and speaker. For all intents and purposes it's a toy, but it's also got the makings of a very capable telepresence machine.

Unlike traditional Web cams, or mounted security cameras, the Rovio is mobile. It has a built-in Wi-Fi antenna and three wheels that have little wheels of their own. This design means it cannot handle stairs, but it does let it move in any direction without a lot of back and forth cornering like you'd get with a vacuum. All the while you can watch everything it's seeing in streaming VGA-quality video.

The Rovio's control system is managed entirely in a Web browser. You control all of its movements with a cockpit of controls that lets you perform a number of tasks without any special training. In other words, you don't need to read the manual.

Included is a control grid that lets you rotate the robot a predetermined number of degrees in one direction or the other. Or you can hit one of the four-way directional buttons to get it moving forward, backward, or side to side. Its big trick though is that it also lets you drag your mouse as if you were using an analog control stick, which controls how fast it moves in any one direction. This provides a very fluid-like feeling when maneuvering it around your house.

The control panel also gives you three choices for how you want its camera angled. The default has it sitting flat, but you can also have it move up a few inches (while still staying level), or going up in a 45 degree angle that lets you sneak a peak at the ceiling. Out of the three I found the middle to be the sweet spot, but I often found myself wanting… Read more

To combat a robot invasion in the movies, the hero may need some sort of high-powered superweapon. To slow one down in real life, a heaping helping of recession should do the trick.

NextGen Research on Tuesday eased back the throttle on hopes for a surge in the number of robots arriving on the home front in the near future. In its new "Personal Robotics 2009" report, the research company forecasts that the global market for personal robots will be worth more than $5 billion in 2015, up from just over $1 billion seen for this year.

Put … Read more

Wowwee's 2009 lineup of iPod-friendly mobile projectors are hot--almost hot enough to make us forgive the company for unleashing Femisapien onto the world. Branded under the Cinemin moniker, WowWee's pico projectors come in three flavors: Swivel ($299), Stick ($349), and Station ($399).

Tom Merritt and I got some hands-on time with WowWee's Cinemin projectors at the CES 2009 Digital Experience showcase. Tom's First Look video can be seen on the right. For a closer look, I've included a slide show below.

To see more of the products WowWee is announcing at CES 2009, take a … Read more

WowWee's 2009 product line includes everything from roving telepresence robots and pocket-size iPod projectors, to animatronic plush koalas and miniature motorized planes. They must have a lot of fun dreaming this stuff up. To take a closer look at WowWee's new wares, click through to see our photo gallery.

Last week, we reported that Wrex the Dog was showing up at select U.S. e-tailers. On Monday, WowWee, maker of CNET editor Bonnie Cha's favorite work companion RoboSapien, announced that Rovio the roving robotic Web camera is now beginning to show up at some e-tailers.

While Wrex is cute and all, he doesn't really serve any functional purpose. Rovio, however, is cute and extremely functional. His three roving wheels let him move in pretty much any direction. Using an indoor GPS system, Rovio is able to, quite impressively, find his way around the house.

His Wi-Fi-enabled Webcam … Read more

Even in the robo-universe all good things come to an end, as we saw with the passing of the beloved Robosapien. But with change comes opportunity, no matter how ill-conceived it might be.

And in this new era WowWee has decided to make good on its promise to release a universal remote that can control all the creations in its ever-expanding stable of bots. The "RoboRemote" works with any infrared-controlled robot made by the prolific company, though it requires the use of Windows XP or Vista software. We just hope it's not as complicated as other remotes … Read more

It's been a busy few days for the guys over at RobotsRule. First they got a hands-on look at the "Tri-Bot," successor to the once-beloved Robosapien, and now they've set their sights on "Wrex The Dawg."

The latest creation from WowWee's bot meisters is an ill-mannered toy that's "absolutely terrible at being a dog and even worse at being a robot," the site says, "with an appearance that resembles Frankenstein's Dog if he were assembled from a disjointed set of junkyard parts and a face not even a … Read more

So long, Robosapien. It's been a good run, but face it: When McDonald's starts giving you away with Happy Meals, it's probably a sign that your 15 minute of fame are over.

Enter the "Tri-Bot." WowWee's successor to the groundbreaking Robosapien follows closely in its footsteps with exceptional mobility for a toy robot, except that it has no feet. Instead, it has a three-wheeled base that allows it to turn in any direction at the sharpest angles. The bot made an appearance earlier this year at CES, but RobotsRule has just posted the first … Read more