the I-DROID

[cyberdan system]

Any body got any info or views on the I-DROID ...its one of those magazine build it in parts robot kit ...done a little reaserch myself but as far as i no ...all info related is in italian!

all views welcome...:-D

[HarryBotter]

I checked out the I-Droid 01 on the Italian site. Good find!

http://www.i-droid01.com/frontend/

What a cool bot! Obviously a takeoff on the Johnny-5, I'd love to get a take on its capabilities.

I've email an Italian friend to see if he knows anything about it. If he gives me anything interesting I'll pass it on.

I've done a translation of the webpage and gotten some info.

Cheers, Harry

[tempusmaster]

Any body got any info or views on the I-DROID ...its one of those magazine build it in parts robot kit ...done a little reaserch myself but as far as i no ...all info related is in italian!

all views welcome...:-D

De Agostini's distributor has been selling the I-Droid here in Japan as "My Robot" for a while. The business model reminds me a lot of the old encyclopaedia or World Book approach. They are actually selling it in a series of modules (volumes?) via regular bookstore chains.

You buy different robot modules packaged in a book-box format, put that module together, then come back and buy the next module. One box might be the head, another might be an arm or foot or part of the leg. Assuming you have the patience to stick with it (and the budget) you eventually end up with the whole thing working.

The documentation, packaging, and collateral had been translated into Japanese, but not the voice recognition. They had a printed menu type card that showed you what to say in Italian to get the robot to recognize your command.

I haven't seen them at any of the big robot events recently, but guess that their sales must be doing okay because the bookstores are still carrying the product on their shelves.

[TheDuck]

I used babelfish.altavista.com to translate the pages but I didn't see anything about distributors.

i-Droid USA, a tiny little division of ROBOT? ;)

[breemen]

i-Droid is called i-Qbot in the Netherlands. You can find more information at http://www.personalrobotics.nl