[HH] Romo: a robotic platform for your cell phone

[Tom Metro]

[More stuff demoed this past week at CES...]

Here's another product that makes the headphone jack on your smartphone
do double duty. Here it is used as a way to communicate between a
smartphone and a robotic platform, where the platform provides a couple
of tank tracks for mobility, and a stand for your phone, which serves as
the brain. The headphone jack provides a universal hardware interface
that works with iPhones, Android, and Windows phones.

http://www.romotive.com/

It costs $100 and ships in March.

Nifty toy, but seems to have little practical value. Their real-world
suggested use is for telepresence - you have one of these roaming around
your office as your avatar when you are working from home.

OK, so in that scenario, where does the cell phone come from? Yours is
at home with you. So you have a separate smart phone dedicated to the robot?

Same conundrum applies if you leave the robot at home as a roaming
security camera. I guess someday when we all have a handful of obsolete
smartphones lying around, this could be a handy way to repurpose them.

Still, could be a decent educational platform if they do a good job on
the phone apps.

 -Tom