Stay away from some obvious gift ideas this holiday season and choose robots instead
Apart from the fact that robots can make your pet dog super jealous...
… here are six affordable and fun robot gift ideas to consider this holiday season.
1) LEGO Mindstorms EV3: Seriously, anyone who doesn’t like
to play with LEGO kits should be sent back to a childhood correctional
facility, because LEGO kits are simply awesome. The LEGO Mindstorms EV3,
as our first robot gift idea, is even more cool and awesome than
regular LEGO kits. The Mindstorms EV3 comes with hundreds of LEGO
bricks, besides USP items like rotors, sensors – one of which is an
infrared sensor for optics or eyes, and remote controls. You can make a
Giant Robot replica, motorized scorpion or a serpent, apart from tiny
robotic critters – all possible through a programmable EV3 brick which
has an ARM 9 chip, sporting 64MB of RAM and 16MB of flash storage for
programs. This new LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kit also supports iOS devices,
allowing you to use your iPhone or iPad as a controller. This is the
ultimate robot gift you could buy, given its versatility and value.
Price: US $350 / Shopping website
2) Hexbugs: If you thought the previous robot gift idea was
too expensive, this one will go a little easy on your pocket. Hexbugs
are micro robotic creatures of various shapes and kind. Some of them are
remote controlled, while others react to their surroundings and act
accordingly. The Hexbug for instance reacts to loud noises and scurries
away, while the Crab avoids light through a photodetector and sits in
dark corners. The Larva can veer away from obstacles on its own, while
the Ant can move faster than others until it bumps into an object and
reverses direction on its own. These are just a few, as there are other
ingenious robot bugs to check out as well. You can buy each robot hexbug
as a gift in isolation, but specially for the holiday season all the
family of hexbugs (including six robots) is available as a special
bundle.
Price: US $70 / Shopping website
3) RC UDI Quadcopter with camera: Admit it: flying drones
are awesome, right? If you want to have some fun in your backyard or
apartment building’s terrace, or wow (or scare!) people in a public
park, consider the UDI Quadcopter as a worthy flying robot this holiday
season. Mind you, this is just a basic quadcopter but it comes with a
six-axis gyro with posture control, attached camera for shooting videos
and taking aerial photos, and a range of 30 metres. You can transfer
photos and videos from this remote eye in the sky through a USB port. If
you’re still unconvinced, check this POV video of UDI Quadcopter in action. Flying robot gifts FTW!
Price: US $150 / Shopping website
If you have slightly deeper pockets, check out the DJI Phantom Aerial UAV Drone Quadcopter which is meant for use with GoPros.
4) Sphero 2.0: This appears to be less of a robot and more
like a baseball. It’s a smart ball, and its smartness can be attributed
to its robot DNA. Sphero (from Orbotix) is a ball that can be controlled
through iOS and Android apps running on supported devices, allowing you
to drive it around with finesse and control, and essentially play games
in the real world for a change. Drive it around in mud, dirt, water or
any other solid surface. But that’s not all. Sphero can also be used as a
wireless controller for compatible games on iOS and Android devices –
like pointing a gun or changing directions through a ball-shaped D pad
in your hand. The Sphero robotic ball can also light up, pulse or throb
randomly or to the tune of a song that you’re listening. Oh and did we
mention that you can have a lot of fun with this thing? Just buy it
already.
Price: US $129.99 / Shopping website
5) Romo: This is a dormant robot dock which comes to life
once you plug in your smartphone into it. From a startup based in Las
Vegas, Romo is quite an uncanny robot to have around. It’s primarily a
tank-like base to hook your phone into, and together the Romo robot can
do many things. It can detect faces, smile when it recognizes familiar
faces, move around the house on its own, and do other cool things
through its programmable interface settings. It’s controlled over Wi-Fi
and supports telepresence, meaning you can control Romo remotely. It can
capture video as well. Isn’t it cool? Nice little device to have around
the house, and definitely a good gift idea for a robot.
Price: US $149.99 / Shopping website
6) Attacknids: Made by a company called Combat Creatures,
Attacknids is an apt name for a six-legged, fully remote controlled
battle-worthy robot gift for terrorizing fun this holiday season. There
are different type of attacknids to choose from. The predator class of
robot toy can fire 12 discs (for missiles) up to a range of 10 metres to
either impale fellow humans around you or take out other attacknids,
while one other class can fire sniper darts. All attacknids have a 360
degree rotatable head and can be remote controlled up to several feet.
These attacknids run on six AA batteries, and as said above quite a good
idea as robot gifts this holiday season.
Price: US $54.99 (each) / Shopping website
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