A new age: Technically classified as toys, these robots are anything bot

Start-up aims to introduce robotic toys that leave everything to the imagination.

KARACHI:

From Yoda to Matilda, images of telekinetic heroes and antiheroes have fascinated many generations, and in many a quiet room, in complete solitude, all of us have tried to move objects with our minds at one time or the other. Now, that ‘power’ can simply be bought online.

“Concentrate,” urged the manager of cereb.pk, the website selling the robots. “Concentrate harder.” It was then that the wings started to move and in the blink of an eye, the object took flight; flying seemingly on its own accord, without any joystick or controller.

Around the head of the man trying out the device, was a simple gear, visually similar to a headphone. It was that which controlled the flying object. All he had to do was concentrate, and the object would fly and it was soon zooming around the room, harnessing his powers of concentration. The more he willed it, the higher it went, until it was soon banging against the ceiling.

When it landed, the manager caught it in his hand. “There are other uses of this too,” he said. “Games are being developed that you can play just by concentrating and meditating.”

The games were basic - centred around moving a ball towards its goal by concentrating on it - but the image of seeing a man move something on a remote device merely by thinking about it was one to be marvelled at. The games would hopefully become increasingly complex and developed as the technology becomes more common.

Other uses of this technology can be found in classrooms and training centres, where trainers and lecturers can monitor the concentration of their students; an altogether more ‘Orwellian’ application but a more practical one.

Programmable robots

Made entirely of what seemed like hard plastic, the DARwin MINI is a white robot that has many tricks up its sleeve.

It is controlled by a simple mobile application - available on both Android and iOS - and can be programmed to do gestures as simple as clapping or greeting someone with a bow or a wave of the hand. The programming, however, becomes all the more remarkable when a combination of gestures are used, resulting in the MINI being able to bust out some mean dance moves to whatever song you desire or even playing an entire match of football with other MINIs.

It can be programmed easily enough; simply by dragging and dropping the desired gestures from the provided list. It is so easy that a child can do it, and that is exactly the plan.

“These programmable toys are essentially DIY science kits focusing on a mixture of science, technology, engineering and maths,” the manager added.

Another robotic ‘toy’ - for calling something with such incredible capabilities toys seems a little demeaning - called the Bioloid Premium is the largest in its series. Grey in colour, the robot was controlled by a joystick. Similar to the MINI, this one could also be programmed to do a variety of tasks, limited only by the imagination of its user.

Build your own robot

Robots that can be programmed to do whatever you desire are not the only tech toys available at Cereb. There are others that allow children to ‘build’ the robot themselves.



PHOTO: OMER ASIM

The box contains building blocks, motors and a cortex processor. They can be fashioned into a variety of objects that, once again, are seemingly limited by the imagination of the builder; from a working replica of a windmill to a moonwalking robot or one that follows any line on a page by detecting the changes in the reflected light. Other, more advanced, robots of the same ilk are designed for adults. Used in robot competitions and ‘wars’, these robots can be built and programmed to do a variety of tasks, from sorting out objects based on their size or shape to simply moving them around. For the more mature nerds, these toys provide a whole plethora of opportunities for entertainment.

A more lasting purpose?

Cereb wants to introduce these robots in schools, both primary and secondary, in order to introduce robotics to children. Toys they may be - as they seemingly have little practical application - but they may yet herald a new wave of interest in robotics in the country’s younger generation and may hence serve a far more important purpose than of mere entertainment.

THE ROBOTIC FRIEND World’s first balancing robot



PHOTO: OMER ASIM

MiP, said the manager, is the world’s first balancing robot, meaning that it doesn’t fall even when pushed, nor does it allow any object it is carrying to fall.

MiP has sensors that detect your hand gestures so you can control it by moving your hand around, or you can use its mobile application to do so.

Designed to be a ‘robot friend’, MiPs can be pitted against each other in a boxing match – with the robot hit the most automatically deactivating itself to signal that it has been defeated – and can also be used for a variety of other purposes, such as being driven around via the app or can be specified a path to move around on.

MY FIRST ROBOT Targeting the little ones



PHOTO: OMER ASIM

Cereb is aware that the robots become increasingly age-restrictive as they get more complex. Hence, they also have some simpler ones, geared to target children as young as three years of age.

The Bristlebot is one of them. The toy is a simply a packet containing bristles, a vibrating motor, a battery and two wires to complete the circuit. The idea is for the child to assemble it all together, so that when the wires touch the battery and complete the circuit, the vibrating motor moves the Bristlebot.

The toy is minimalist in its design, aiming to bare the basics of robotics and motors to children so as to whet their curiosity about robots and make them progress towards the more advanced ones.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 12^th, 2014.