The run-up to Christmas has seen a wide range of adverts aimed at children hitting the TV, and many of these relate to the hot products that companies are expecting long-suffering parents to snap up this festive season. One such item is Vector from Anki, a small, palm-sized robot which boasts advanced AI routines and can even act as your virtual assistant.
Vector isn't the first stab that Anki has had at this particular market; in 2016, it released a similar robot called Cozmo that captured the hearts of minds of thousands of kids all over the world. Despite the arrival of Vector, Cozmo is still very much an active concern for Anki and this Christmas, the company is pushing the robot with a reduced price point. But with Vector now on store shelves – and getting its own advertising push – is Cozmo really worth your time in 2018?
Anki Cozmo Review: Design
Cozmo has been designed to be utterly adorable, and looks a lot like Disney's Wall-E character – in fact, Anki commissioned an artist from Disney to create the robot's expressions, which are communicated via a screen which acts as its face.
Cozmo travels around on caterpillar tracks, which means it likes flat surfaces but can struggle on carpets. The robot's head can tilt up and down, and it has a lifter arm which is used to manipulate objects.
In the box you also get a charging cradle and three plastic blocks – these each contain their own battery and light up when Cozmo is playing games or using them to draw energy (more on that in a bit). While Cozmo has a rechargeable battery (which sadly cannot be replaced once it gives up the ghost), the blocks do not – you'll need to periodically change these when they expire.
Cozmo is tiny – so small it can fit in the palm of even a child's hand – and is mostly made from plastic. It certainly feels like a toy, but don't let that fool you – this wee android has some seriously impressive tricks up its sleeve. It's available in white (with orange detailing) and in a special 'limited edition' silver variant, which is the one we've got here (which happens to look a lot like the newer Vector). Aside from the colour, there are no other differences between the two.
Anki Cozmo Review: Software
To use Cozmo, you'll need a smart device you can install the companion app on – the app is what does most of the heavy lifting as far as the robot's complex AI processes are concerned. To connect Cozmo with the app, you have to link your device to the robot's personal Wi-Fi channel – this means that when you're using Cozmo, you won't be connected to your usual Wi-Fi network and may therefore incur data charges – a minor point, but one to be aware of.
The initial connection will prompt you to type in Cozmo's unique code, which flashes up on its face. This is quite a fiddly system but you should only have to do it once. When you've successfully paired with Cozmo – which needs to be sat in its charging dock during this process – then you're away.
Cozmo will happily roll around the room investigating things, and you can even get it to recognise your face so it knows you're around. A tiny camera – located on the head of the robot – is capable of recognising several different faces and Cozmo will gleefully repeat the names of people it knows in a cute robotic voice. The camera can also be used to see what Cozmo is seeing; there's a special mode where you get a live feed of the robot's view of the world on your smart device, and you can control it remotely.
The app has been kept simple so kids don't feel intimidated, but it's actually got an amazing amount of depth to it, especially since Anki updated it in 2017 to include programming tools. The basics involve keeping Cozmo content by making sure it has enough energy and playing games with it. You also need to 'calibrate' the robot every now and again to ensure it's in tip-top working order.
Feeding Cozmo is a wonderfully interactive experience which neatly sums up how the robot works; you shake one of the three blocks until it glows and then set it down in front of Cozmo. The robot will then pick it up and consume the energy contained within. You get points for performing activities like this and it all builds up; it's like experience levels in a video game RPG, and it makes the whole thing very 'sticky' – even children with short attention spans will keep coming back to Cozmo day after day, such is the tangible sense of reward.
What's really impressive is that the Cozmo app also allows you to program various routines, which gives younger users a rudimentary taste of proper programming. For example, you can set up a chain of events using the app so that when Cozmo sees a smiling face, it will perform a particular action.
It might sound basic but the vast repository of user-created games and programs – available within the app – proves that this is actually quite a potent tool when you put the effort in.
Anki Cozmo Review: Performance
Cozmo is a wonder to behold when you initially boot it up. The little robot will move around the room autonomously, checking its surroundings and occasionally moving or even stacking the three plastic blocks to pass the time. It will also mutter to itself and – in doing so – will totally convince youngsters that it's a living, thinking machine.
While a sense of repetition does set in over time as Cozmo only has a limited number of routines it can call upon, the illusion of it having its own personality is maintained by the wonderfully expressive 'face' that does an excellent job of showing how the robot is feeling. Other little touches – such as Cozmo becoming dizzy when you pick it up and shake it – add to the appeal.
Perhaps the single biggest shortcoming is the fact that Cozmo is totally reliant on the app, and needs to be connected to it at all times. It's also annoying that the robot has to be sat in its dock before you can reconnect it to the app – the more recent Vector doesn't need the app to function (although one is still needed for certain tasks) and will automatically make its way back to the dock when its power levels are low. You also have to manually connect to Cozmo's Wi-Fi channel every time you connect to it, which gets irksome over time. These are minor issues, however.
You get around 90 minutes of use out of a 30-minute charge so even the most impatient kids don't have to wait too long before they can get up and running with this thing. There were a few times when our unit appeared to run out of juice prematurely, but a prolonged session on the charging dock seemed to fix this.
Anki Cozmo Review: Verdict
Cozmo isn't getting any younger and with Vector on the market – and the recent price drop in the UK – you might assume the end of the road is in sight for this pint-sized robotic companion. That's actually far from the case, as Cozmo shares a great many features with Vector and is arguably a better purchase for kids as it doesn't have the 'virtual assistant' function of the more recent toy, which you could argue is aimed at adult buyers. The reliance on an app and the dock are sometimes a little annoying, but even with Vector, an app remains the best way to communicate with a robot like this, so it's not as big a deal as you might think.
Cozmo still has the power to entertain even after two years on the market, and will make a solid purchase for kids and aspiring programmers this Christmas – especially at its lower price.
from Featured Articles https://ift.tt/2zNSAbM
Hello, My Name Is Faran Mithani . I'm a 32 year old self-employed Wellcome My Website. 
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks For Comment