27 Oct Anki Drive, toy cars racing robot landed on Android
Anki on Android platform brings its Anki Drive, a play set consists of cars equipped with electronic programmable artificial intelligence that will compete on a track and battle it out in virtual reality.
During the course of the Worldwide Developer Conference 2013 conference for developers held annually by Apple, along with the innovations introduced by the Cupertino company, such as iOS and OS X 7 Maverick, made his appearance, the company also Anki, chosen specifically by Apple to illustrate the potential of iOS.
The speakers of the company in San Francisco showed off their first product, Anki Drive, an electronic toy that has so intriguing possibilities offered by robotics and artificial intelligence.
Anki Drive includes a large number of cars electronic controlled via a mobile device and that react with surprising accuracy at the races that take place on a special track on vinyl. The first set of Drive was launched in the market at the end of 2013 and was initially only compatible with iOS while, in the last hours, Anki has officially announced support for the Android platform.
The initial set includes two machine models (Boson & Kourai), two sets for charging, the base path and a kit for cleaning the wheels. Each machine is equipped with optical sensor, wireless chip, engine and software for the ‘artificial intelligence. The game plan, however, is not just the physical as each model will have a different “personality” and the cars are able to do battle in augmented reality smartphones and tablets via virtual weapons and upgrades.
The conversion to Android Drive currently has two obvious limitations, however. The first is the limited number of devices will be compatible with Nexus 5, Galaxy Note 3/4 / 10.1 or the Galaxy S4 / S5. The other is the lack of interoperability between iOS and Android platforms which greatly limits the possibilities. It is hoped that a future extension of the support.