The WowWee Rovio Mobile Webcam ($299) is probably the most intriguing and important “robot” WowWee has ever produced: This consumer telepresence robot is unlike anything the company has ever brought to market. As one of only two people in the U.S. who has a shipping version of the product, I couldn’t wait to unpack it and try it out. In fact I didn’t wait! Within minutes of its arrival, I was ripping open the box and setting up the device.
Find out how well it worked, and see many, many pictures, after the jump.
The first thing I noticed about the Rovio is that when I took it out of the box, added the rechargeable battery pack (another first for WowWee) and tuned it on, is that the robot did absolutely nothing. I mean, I′m used to WowWee robots–such as the Tribot, Roboraptor, and Robosapien–that immediately start moving and cracking wise.
The Rovio just sat there–at first, that is.
It comes with a charging stating, which includes a special navigation system that shoots two laser beams onto your ceiling, so the Rovio can find its way home (at least when it’s in the same room).
My office ceiling is around 15 feet high and quite bumpy, so not optimal for the Rovio to see it clearly.
The Rovio does come with software, but I noticed that there was an advanced user setup option that lets you use an ad-hoc wireless connection to connect to and control this rolling webcam.
We use the Odyssey client in my office for our wireless network, so I had to disable that and give Windows XP control of the wireless network setup. Rovio’s SSID showed up immediately.
Then I just had to make some changes to the IP and subnet settings.
With that done, I could point my browser to the Rovio’s IP address. Within seconds, its Web-based control interface appeared and I saw what Rovio saw through its camera (which starts about 4 inches off the ground).
The interface is dead simple; right away, I started using the virtual joystick controls to roll the Rovio forward, turn it around, and then send it rolling through the halls of my office.
I loved people’s reactions as they saw it rolling by their offices and cubes–priceless. You’ll really want to warn people before you start sending Rovio around a typical office.
For the most part the Rovio was incredibly responsive. I clicked Turn Right, and it turned right. I clicked Roll Back, and it rolled back. I was able to have it make custom turns and also use the six pre-set direction points. The interface offers three camera position points I controlled from my desktop: Rovio can raise its camera up halfway or look all the way up.
By the way, the Rovio features the same omnidirectional wheel system as the Tribot, which gives it tremendous maneuverability
The adhoc connection remained strong for around 75 feet or so, and then (although it can avoid obstacles on its own) the Rovio finally got stuck. The mobile webcam turned from side to side, but Rovio stopped roving. I’m still not sure if this was a physical problem or the wireless connection–though it still looked pretty strong, at that point. To be fair, I didn’t start by charging the bot up, so it may simply have not had enough juice to keep going.
Though only 352-by-288 pixels, the video resolution was clear enough for me to see where I was going; but it’s nothing to write home about. I also was able to use the interface to record what Rovio saw, though I′m still trying to figure out where it stores the video.
All in all, there’s a lot of depth in the Rovio. In addition to ad-hoc control, you can connect it to your nearest wireless router and then control it– telepresence-style–from the Internet. That’s something I hope to try when I bring this baby home. I can also have it e-mail snapshots that it collects along the way.
When the Rovio ran out of juice (the interface always shows you how much power is left), I used the home button in the interface to have it automatically find the charging station. The Rovio tried but failed to find the station. I expect it will have more luck in a standard home, as opposed to my office. We’ll see.
One other note about the lasers Rovio uses to navigate back home: When we plugged in the charging station, the laser, which is housed under a golf-ball-sized lens, atomically turned on. And because I was leaning over it and did not yet know what it was, the beam went right into my eye–hey, free laser keratotomy! The instructions actually carry a special single page insert that warns of exactly this danger. It looks like it was added as something of an after thought. Consider yourselves warned.
The blindness in my eye aside, this is one wicked cool telepresence robot. I haven’t dug in deep enough to offer my final word (we’ll have a full review up on PCMag.com), but so far I’m impressed–and having a very good time.
Any time we get a box from WowWee is a time for rejoicing.
The Rovio comes with software, but you can also use an ad hoc setup, as I did.
Part of the charging base.
The Rovio comes with this rechargeable battery pack.
Connecting the battery.
Original post by Lance Ulanoff
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