Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > September > 25
Friday, September 25, 2009
My robot dreams, which conflict with certain realities
A man has dreams. Fantasies. Sometimes those fantasies involve controlling a powerful robot. Who could blame a man for that?
Last week, I got an invitation to go see a new product called U:bot being rolled out by Games2U, an Austin-based company. Games2U has grown quite a bit since we wrote about them in June. They now have franchises in 20 states for their mobile gaming trucks, which bring Xbox, Wii and PlayStation 3 games to parties.
The company is expanding its wares (hey, giant hamster balls!) and the new robot sounded exciting. The company created the 6’8” robot itself at a cost of about $10,000 per robot. But that was all secondary to the promise that I would get to enter the robot and control it, shooting lasers and talking in a sexy robot voice. (“Hey ladies: let us breakdance, at which moment I will perform the robot. Bleep bleem 011101.”)
It sounds better in robot-speak.
By the time the actual event rolled around, I had full-on “Iron Man” delusions of grandeur. Could I figure out a way to fly the robot, perhaps to a tropical island where I would defy natural law by finding a way for a robot to get a tan?
When I showed up at Games2U’s northwest Austin headquarters, the robot was under wraps in a large warehouse area. Kids were gathered, giddy with excitement, and that should have been my first clue that something might be amiss. Who lets kids near a destructive force of robotic justice? They were going to cramp my crime-fighting style!
And then, I got hit with the bombshell: the robot is meant for kids and to climb inside the robot, you have to be below a certain height. That certain height is shorter than me. It looked like a small, child-sized space in there.
I could have wept. My robot dreams were dashed. O, cruel genetics!
I watched several kids climb into the robot and drive it around, controlling the U:bot with a joystick inside. The robot can fire off fog, shoot simulated lasers and modulate your voice to make you sound like a robot. (“Ha ha, Omar, you are too tall, bleep bleep 011101.”)
Games2U co-founder David Pikoff told me that the robot is part of a line of new products they’ll be rolling out in the near future. That’s great, but might I suggest a new project? A robot twice as big, built for the discriminating adult who dreams of being a gigantic, awe-inducing robot.
I think it would do really well.
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