We're here at Ani to check out their new Cosmo, a fun and highly interactive
little robot that functions both as a toy and a pet. Heard that before and
been disappointed? I think you'll be pleasantly surprised this time as they
didn't just use a team of highly skilled engineers, but they also worked with
people that used to work at DreamWorks and Pixar to do the animations and game
design. This creates a dynamic combination of
artificial intelligence, interactive content, animatronics, along with vision
and sensing technologies that create not just an awesome robot, but a personality
or a character. Now, let's go meet Cosmo. This is Cosmo. And he's not
perfect, but he isn't intended to be. He's designed after a flawed but lovable
little hero. R2-D2 and BB-8 aren't the most advanced droids in the Star Wars
universe, but you love them because they have character like Cosmo. Cozmo can
detect who you are and greet you like this.
And he has emotions like confidence, excitement, happiness, bravery, and
more. Sometimes he will fail and he will
complain about that. or you'll be playing a game with him and he will
respond happily or sadly depending on if he is winning or losing. He gets
surprised when he encounters new people or objects or even the ever dreaded
table ledge. He feels real. It's kind of
like playing with a dog. Sure, playing the game. Like throwing a stick or ball
is somewhat entertaining, but the really fun part is interacting with the dog.
The best part of Cosmo is well interacting with Cosmo. and the games
are mostly a facilitator for that. Although I must say I did get a little
competitive with the quicktap game. As you're just screwing around or
completing daily goals, you will earn bits to upgrade Cosmo or unlock new
games. And by the way, you'll never have to pay for these with real money, just
easily acquirable in-game currency. And there should be a lot of them as the
Anki team claims they have a multi-year road map for future upgrades. And along
with that, you also get sparks, which are kind of like dog treats. They can be
used to prompt Cosmo to show off and do a little trick. But as we were saying
before, sometimes Cozmo will fail at these tasks that you have given him.
Instead of acting like you might expect a robot to act by just repeatedly trying
over and over again, Cozmo will get sad and lose confidence, resulting in him
possibly trying the task in a different way or maybe even switching tasks
altogether, yet again, making him feel more real. say he screws up big time and
fails to recognize a table ledge causing him to fall off. First off, he's rather
durable and should be fine. Secondly, however, he will express major
displeasure. He will lack bravery and confidence for a while, just like a
non-rootic being. On the flip side, when
Cozmo is excitedly doing fun things and succeeding, he will check in with you
from time to time, making eye contact, calling your name just like a happy kid
would, and he'll go around and do a bunch of different things. Lots of what
gives Cosmo this great personality, is subtle, as it should be. the emotional
algorithms, huge library of animations, dynamic interaction, incredibly awesome
eyes if you haven't noticed, and even a soundtrack. They aren't necessarily
things you would actively think about, but together they make a wonderful
experience. Now, let's look more in depth at what's happening under the
hood. Most of the computational power for Cosmo, including AI, computer
vision, etc., is done through your phone, meaning you need to be connected
at all times to Cosmo's Wi-Fi network. So, just as a note, this does mean you
won't be connected to the internet on your phone. While this does sort of suck
to be honest, this is good for another reason, which is very possibly more
important to you. You're always offline, meaning that no pictures or video are
taken. No voice is recorded. Your private conversations with Cosmo or
things that he sees and hears are yours and don't go anywhere else. This also
means that as your phone becomes better, Cosmo can too. With various software
upgrades, you can enhance Cosmo's activities, behaviors, and interactions.
Anki has a multi-year road map, as we mentioned earlier, for future upgrades.
But if you want to make your own or rely on other people's creations, they offer
an extensive Python SDK with great documentation available at
developer.onkey.com. Robotics programming has a crazy
learning curve. Computer vision, path planning, 3D world modeling. All these
things are highly difficult and this API can make them easy with simple imports
and function calls. And if you're more interested in the artsy animation side
of things, however, do not fear. There will be a Maya animation kit with JSON
output available later on. Now, Cosmo is
made up of 320 individual components,
and it took 45 entire mechanical iterations to achieve his final form. In
the end, for computer vision, they ended up with a forward-facing camera and a
cliff sensor. The cliff sensor is on the bottom of Cosmo and will mainly be used
to keep him from falling off of tables. The camera is used to detect faces and
familiar objects with QR code style identifiable images on them. Having a
standard size for these images enables Cosmo to detect how far away they are
and if they're on an angle, which is great, but for things he doesn't know
about, he can use the camera to map them into his environment so he knows to stay
away lest he bump into them. A lot of this tech is in place to avoid what is
called robot kidnapping or the idea of picking up Cosmo and putting him
somewhere else, screwing up his carefully constructed map. He will then
be able to find objects that he is used to seeing, like one of the boxes that
has a QR code on it, map its position in the space, and then try to figure out
where he's at. It's a smart little way to make him not be constantly constantly
confused while you're interacting with him. Now, put all of that together into
a cute little robot along with all the things I mentioned earlier, and you've
got a gifted little guy with a huge amount of tricks under his sleeve. He's
mischievous and a lot of fun, and I'm excited to check them out when they start shipping to Canada and other
places outside the US. If you are too, go to an.com/cosmo.