“toi+”: small, but smart!

At the International Toy Fair 2019, Ravensburger presents “toi+”, a toy console where the playing experience takes place using a toy in your hand, and not on a screen. Key component is the palm-sized Core, which is inserted in toi+ products. It contains various sensors, a vibration function, processor, loudspeaker with multi-track audio output, Bluetooth interface and a rechargeable battery. The Core brings immersive technology to a movement game, party toy and logic trainer. Elementary school age childrenare immersed in a world with atmospheric music and sounds. toi+ registers every movement, change in position, action and entry of the currently active player. As a result,children shape the game progress actively through intuitive entries and movements. Following products are expected to be launched in autumn 2019:

toi+: The Core
It is the key component of the series. As soon as it is inserted in one of the toi+ products, its functions are activated. The core recognizes any type of movement, acceleration or change in position and reacts with sound and vibration to the actions of the players. toi+ products only function with inserted Core. (EUR 69.99 (RRP))

toi+: Magic Compass
The compass sends children ages six years and up on an action-packed adventure in the jungle. Players move in turn through an imaginary labyrinth holding the compass. But obstacles block the path: they have to hop over insects, protect themselves against bats with the compass and free it from a spider’s web. Where are walls and hidden doors? Do the adventurers reach their destination with the right actions? (EUR 49.99 (RRP))

toi+: Brain Board
It invites players ages eight years and up to mental training. There are five logic and memory games, which are available as haptic cards with scenic or abstract illustrations. The various toi+ sensors react to the movements of the player. Logic challenges are solved by a specific tipping of the Brain Board. The training mode offers more than 2,000 tasks in three levels of difficulty for practicing and memory tests. (EUR 49.99 (RRP))

toi+: Furious Falko
With the core inserted, “Furious Falko” comes alive. With his crazy ideas, he motivates children of elementary school age to have fun and be active, e.g. playing air guitar with him, letting him ride a carousel or racecar. Instinct and skilled movements are in demand, because Falko registers everything and reacts with cheeky comments. The vulture has party action games, quiz questions and musical and sportive challenges in store. Appropriate for up to eight children – even on children’s birthday parties. (EUR 49.99 (RRP))

iRobot® Reinventing Lawn Care with Terra™ Robot Mower

Terra introduces cutting-edge navigation technology with Imprint™ Smart Mapping and a unique wireless beacon system, for a more intelligent robot lawn mower

BEDFORD, Mass., Jan. 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Having already changed the way people clean with the iconic Roomba® robot vacuum and Braava® family of robot mops, iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT), the leader in consumer robots, is reinventing how people care for their lawn with the Terra™ robot mower. Terra™ features state-of-the-art mapping and navigation technologies, high-performance, high-quality mowing, and easy installation. A video and photos of the robot were unveiled on iRobot.com today.

Terra is unique because it learns its environment using iRobot’s Imprint™ Smart Mapping technology. It mows like people do, intelligently navigating a yard cutting efficiently in straight, back-and-forth lines. Terra remembers where it is in the yard and where it still needs to cover. If the robot’s battery runs low, it will return to its base to recharge and then resume mowing until the yard is complete.

Terra will offer consumers a welcome alternative to existing robotic lawn mowers by eliminating the need for costly and labor-intensive boundary wires. Combining Imprint™ Smart Mapping technology and a newly developed wireless communications system, including standalone beacons, users just place the wireless beacons around their yard, drive the robot once around the perimeter, and schedule Terra to mow. Users have total control over where the robot goes and where it doesn’t go, so it will stay on the lawn and out of the flowers.

Because Terra is connected, users can use the iRobot HOME App to customiz­­e their robot – from adjusting the height of the grass to controlling precisely when the lawn is cut, day or night. The robot is designed with rugged features to help it operate in inclement weather and navigate tough outdoor terrain.

„iRobot is building an ecosystem of robots and technologies that help people do more both inside and outside of the home,“ said Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot. „The robot mower segment is well established in EMEA and has tremendous room for growth in other markets, including North America. With its ease of use and premium mowing features, Terra is poised to give consumers a whole new way to think about how they take care of their lawn.“

Availability:
The iRobot Terra robot mower will be available for sale in Germany and as a beta program in the U.S. in 2019. Specific availability and pricing will be announced at a later date. Please visit www.irobot.com/robot-lawn-mower for more information.

Electrocuting Robot by Ethan David

Ethan David just messaged me and sent me a video:

“ I made the robot using an arduino, a servo motor, and cardboard boxes. Most of the heavy lifting is taken care of in python doing the fast fourier transform on the sound detected by the microphone to find the frequency being played. This allows me to compare the frequency to the known frequency of the musical scale. It then becomes trivial to just program in the correct sequence of notes for the song and see if what I play matches it. „

iRobot and Google Collaborate to Advance the Next-Generation Smart Home

BEDFORD, Mass., Oct. 31, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT), the
leader in consumer robots, has announced a collaboration with Google to
integrate robotic and smart home technologies that will advance the
next-generation smart home.

Consumer robots like the iRobot Roomba® i7+ robot vacuum are ideally suited
to enable intuitive and personalized smart home experiences based on an
ability to learn a home’s floor plan. With Imprint™ Smart Mapping, the
Roomba i7+ remembers multiple floor plans and room names so users can
customize cleaning jobs. Using the Google Assistant, users can also direct the
robot to clean a specific room with a simple voice command, like ‚Hey Google,
clean the kitchen‘.

Working together, iRobot and Google will seek additional ways to integrate
their platforms, providing customers with the choice to opt in to new
innovative smart home experiences that leverage a broader understanding of the
home’s space. For example, the spatial awareness of the home that Roomba
maintains may help to simplify smart home setup and enable powerful new
automations.

„iRobot is delivering products that help people keep a cleaner and smarter
home,“ said Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot. „Robots with mapping and
spatial awareness capabilities will play an important role in allowing other
smart devices in the home to more seamlessly work together. We’re looking
forward to working with Google to explore new ways to enable a more thoughtful
home.“

„Over the past year, we’ve been working hard to make it easier to control all
the devices and appliances in your home with the Google Assistant with just
your voice,“ said Michele Turner, director, Smart Home Ecosystem, Google.
„We’re excited to be exploring with iRobot how its unique spatial awareness
technology can work with the Assistant to offer customers a more intuitive and
personalized experience in their homes.“

About iRobot Corp.
iRobot, the leading global consumer robot company, designs and builds robots
that empower people to do more both inside and outside of the home. iRobot
created the home robot cleaning category with the introduction of its Roomba®
Vacuuming Robot in 2002. Today, iRobot is a global enterprise that has sold
more than 20 million robots worldwide. iRobot’s product line, including the
Roomba and the Braava® family of mopping robots, feature proprietary
technologies and advanced concepts in cleaning, mapping and navigation.
iRobot’s engineers are building an ecosystem of robots and technologies to
enable the smart home. For more information about iRobot, please visit
www.irobot.com.

For iRobot Investors
Certain statements made in this press release that are not based on historical
information are forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe
harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
This press release contains express or implied forward-looking statements
relating to iRobot Corporation’s expectations concerning research and
development activities, collaboration with third parties and management’s
plans, objectives and strategies. These statements are neither promises nor
guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of
which are beyond our control, which could cause actual results to differ
materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements.
Existing and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance
on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.
iRobot undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained
in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future events
or circumstances or otherwise. For additional disclosure regarding these and
other risks faced by iRobot, see the disclosure contained in our public
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, without
limitation, our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K.

SOURCE iRobot Corp.

Museum Speelklok Utrecht – Robots love music

The international exhibition entitled ‘Robots love Music’ reveals that historical and modern-day robots not only have a brain, but also have a heart!

It’s not just the museum that will be showcasing robots; this autumn, the entire city of Utrecht will go robotic. At various locations around town, Museum Speelklok, universities, venues, and musicians will organise a wide variety of robot events.

Robots with a heart and soul?

They certainly exist! Through time musical ‘robots’ have been evolving from simply mimicking human movements to composing music independently and even improvising, just as we do.

Which musical robots?

They will come in all sizes, shapes and varieties from every corner of the world: ancient robots, interactive robots, metal robots, supersonic robots, life-size robots, cabinets with concealed robots and lots of invisible musicians. All of them will play music ‘live’.

Straight from the USA, the ultramodern and amiable music-making robot Shimon will arrive. The impressive man-size 18th-century Clarinet Player of Dutch making, which wound up in the USA, will make a special trip to Utrecht for the exhibition. From the film of the same name, the French automaton Hugo can be admired in its role as the cinematic link between the world of humans and machines.

Can robotic musicians move you? Find out for yourself at the interactive exhibition Robots love Music. Open from the 21st of September 2018 untill 3th of March 2019.

https://www.museumspeelklok.nl/exhibition-robots-love-music/

https://www.museumspeelklok.nl/exhibition-robots-love-music/

 

 

LegoWorld Utrecht 2018 Photos

Maker Faire Eindhoven 2018

Free VEX Coding Studio Youtube Webinars

Ready to transition your coding skills to VEX Coding Studio? Carnegie Mellon University is hosting a free, four week webinar series detailing everything you’ll need to know to transition from RobotC!

Be sure to tune in to Carnegie Mellon’s YouTube stream (almost) every Thursday, from September 13th to October 11th for your introduction to VEX Coding Studio. We’ll cover topics such as updating firmware, configuring motors and sensors, and programming with VEX C++ and Modkit. If you have any additional topics that you want covered on-air, be sure to ask beforehand on Twitter @CMUCMRA !

To set your YouTube reminders or to see a detailed weekly outine of these webinars, visit the Carnegie Mellon University Website.

New iRobot® Roomba® i7+ Robot Vacuum Learns a Home’s Floor Plan and Empties Itself

iRobot Brings Memory and Hands-Free Cleaning to Roomba® i7+ with Clean Base™ Automatic Dirt Disposal

BEDFORD, Mass.Sept. 6, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Imagine a robot vacuum that not only remembers a home’s floor plan and cleans specific rooms by name – but also automatically empties itself. iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ: IRBT), the leader in consumer robots, today announced the Roomba® i7+ robot vacuum with Clean Base™ Automatic Dirt Disposal. The Roomba i7+ brings a new level of intelligence and automation to robotic vacuum cleaners with the ability to learn, map and adapt to a home’s floor plan. Introducing Imprint™ Smart Mapping, the Roomba i7+ remembers multiple floor plans and room names so users can customize cleaning jobs and direct the robot to clean specific rooms by voice1 or via the iRobot HOME App. When the Roomba i7+ robot vacuum is finished cleaning, it empties its own dust bin into the Clean Base™, which holds 30 bins of dirt, allowing customers to forget about vacuuming for weeks at a time.

Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8234051-irobot-roomba-i7-plus/

„With the ability to learn, adapt to and remember a home’s floor plan, and the introduction of automatic dirt disposal, the iRobot Roomba i7+ represents the most advanced robotic vacuum ever built,“ said Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot. „This robot delivers on the original vision we had when we embarked on the journey to build a vacuuming robot almost 20 years ago.“

Knows your home’s floor plan. Understands your command.
Ushering in a new era of consumer robots, the Roomba i7+ allows customers to clean specific rooms in the home. Using Imprint™ Smart Mapping, the Roomba i7+ gets to know the home’s floor plan, giving customers total control to choose which rooms are cleaned and when. The robot learns every room – remembering up to 10 different floor plans – so users can carry their robot to another floor or a separate home, where the robot will recognize its location and clean as instructed. iRobot’s patented iAdapt® 3.0 Navigation with vSLAM® technology helps the Roomba i7+ seamlessly and efficiently navigate the home by keeping track of where it’s been and where it has yet to clean. The Roomba i7+ also adapts to changing home environments, so it always knows the best way to clean.

The Roomba i7+ works with Alexa™ enabled devices and the Google Assistant, and is the only robot vacuum that lets users clean specific rooms by name with a voice command1. For example, just say, „Alexa, ask Roomba to clean my kitchen,“ or „Hey Google, clean the living room,“ and the Roomba i7+ will efficiently find its way to the appropriate room to clean. Once finished, the robot will return to its base to charge and automatically empty its contents when paired with the Clean Base™ Automatic Dirt Disposal.

Empties on its own.
The iRobot Roomba® i7+ robot vacuum takes convenience to a whole new level with the first-of-its-kind Clean Base™ Automatic Dirt Disposal, which automatically empties the contents of the Roomba i7+ dust bin into the Clean Base. Doubling as the robot’s charging station, the Clean Base takes the dirty work out of vacuuming, storing debris in an enclosed bag, and trapping dirt and dust so it can’t escape into the air. When the bag is full, the user is notified via the iRobot HOME App. Then they simply pull it out of the Clean Base and replace with a new one. The bag can hold 30 bins of debris, so users don’t have to think about vacuuming for weeks at a time.

„iRobot is addressing a long-standing customer call by giving Roomba the ability to empty its own bin after each cleaning,“ said Christian Cerda, COO of iRobot. „This enhances the customer experience by eliminating the dusty and dirty mess often associated with emptying vacuum canisters. With the ability to remember the home, clean specific rooms and empty itself when its finished, the Roomba i7+ with Clean Base Automatic Dirt Disposal quite literally frees customers from every aspect of vacuuming – from start to finish – for weeks at a time.“

Introducing the Roomba® e5 Robot Vacuum.
iRobot also introduced the Roomba® e5 robot vacuum. Starting at $449, customers can enjoy the luxury of automated cleaning at a more accessible price. The Roomba® e5 is packed with innovative technologies that work together for a clean home every day. It starts with the premium 3-Stage Cleaning System and Dual Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes. The specially designed Edge-Sweeping Brush focuses on dirt that accumulates around edges and corners. Smart navigation and Dirt Detect™ technology work together to cover a floor and focus on the areas that need it most. And because it’s Wi-Fi® connected, users can control and schedule cleanings on the Roomba e5 with the iRobot HOME App, or using their voice when paired with Alexa™ enabled devices or the Google Assistant.

Powerful performance, intelligent clean.
iRobot is the only leading robot vacuum brand with robots that have two Multi-Surface Rubber Brushes that work together to effectively clean both carpets and hard floors2. The Roomba i7+ and Roomba e5 robots will automatically adjust the height of the cleaning head so the two brushes can directly engage with the floor. One brush loosens and agitates dirt and the other moves in the opposite direction to extract and pull dirt in. And instead of bristles, which can bend and miss dirt, the flexible rubber brushes hug the floor to clean everything from small particles, like dust and dirt, to hair and large debris.

Featuring a low-profile design to clean under furniture and along toe kicks, the Roomba i7+ and Roomba e5 robots use a High-Efficiency Filter to capture 99 percent of pollen, mold, dust mites, and cat and dog allergens.

Leveraging Dirt Detect™ Technology – an iRobot patented feature – the Roomba i7+ and Roomba e5 robots are always looking for the places that need the most attention. Sensors in the robot recognize particularly dirty areas, such as sand near a doorway entrance, and prompt the robot to clean them more thoroughly. Once the Roomba i7+ robot is finished cleaning, users can view Clean Map™ reports in the iRobot HOME App to see where the robot cleaned and other details3.

Pricing and Availability
The Roomba i7+ robot vacuum with Clean Base™ Automatic Dirt Disposal is available for pre-sale immediately in the U.S. and Canada starting at $949 USD on www.irobot.com, with shipments beginning Wednesday, September 12. The Roomba i7+ will be available at select retailers beginning in October. The Roomba i7 robot vacuum can also be purchased without the Clean Base™ starting at $699 USD on www.irobot.com. The Clean Base™ Automatic Dirt Disposal sold separately will retail for $299 USD. Additional Dirt Disposal Bags can be purchased for $14.99 for a pack of three bags. The Roomba i7+ with Clean Base™ Automatic Dirt Disposal is expected to be available in certain international markets in Q1 2019.

The Roomba e5 robot vacuum starts at $449 USD and will be available on www.irobot.com in the U.S. and Canada beginning Wednesday, September 12.