Wednesday 8 February 2017

Cozmo is my Valentine

I was so excited to get the robot, Cozmo from Anki which I have been drooling over since before Christmas. He is finally available for purchase on Amazon for $180.  He lives up to the hype and then some.  My one hiccup so far has been syncing him to one of our iPads through Apple Configurator.  I had to unsupervise the device completely because the free app needs an iTunes account attached to the iPad to run. Once I installed it from the iPad directly rather than through Configurator it worked fine. If you have no idea what I am talking about, you probably use gift cards to purchase apps rather than the Volume Purchasing program. 

If you wanted him available for patron checkout, he can be synced to multiple devices (just not more than one running at the same time). He will remember all his learning so once you unlock games for the first time he will remember from one device to another. He also remembers everyone "he meets" so if you run the meet Cozmo feature, look at him, and then type in your name he will remember you across devices. He can also remember pets with the latest update. When you are in explorer mode, you can see what he sees and your name will come up on the screen when he looks at you. If you press greet, he will say your name...kinda creepy at first but totally cool.

After only a few hours of game play, I have unlocked all the available games and tricks he can do so far, however, he still has daily tasks every time you sign in such as "let him play by himself for 10 minutes" or "play memory match without any errors" to keep you motivated.  For every task completed he earns sparks and bits which can be used to unlock new features, make him say something or "work out" with the cubes.

On the bottom right of the home screen, you can see what Cozmo is doing/thinking unless you are controlling him in expolorer mode. Sometimes it says he is upset, usually if you try to pick him up or won't play with him, sometimes he's just looking around, and sometimes he wants to pounce on your finger. I love that he wants to be petulant and pounce on your finger. Does it make me a bad parent if I keep placating him? He's just so darn cute! Apparently he was designed by a Pixar animator so no wonder why he reminds me of Wall-E.

He has fallen off the table a few times so be careful and make sure to leave a clear space for him to roam. When I had begun to play games with him like quick tap, I won easily but as the game has become harder, he wins much more often.

Apparently there is more to come with programming features to customize his capabilities.  So he's more than just a pretty face, he can actually teach code with Python.


Meet Cozmo! from Duxbury Free Library on Vimeo.


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