Ultimate Robot Companion? - Anki Cozmo Showcase
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
1,173 words · ~5 min read
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We're here at Ani to check out their new Cosmo, a fun and highly interactive
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little robot that functions both as a toy and a pet. Heard that before and
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been disappointed? I think you'll be pleasantly surprised this time as they
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didn't just use a team of highly skilled engineers, but they also worked with
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people that used to work at DreamWorks and Pixar to do the animations and game
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design. This creates a dynamic combination of
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artificial intelligence, interactive content, animatronics, along with vision
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and sensing technologies that create not just an awesome robot, but a personality
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or a character. Now, let's go meet Cosmo. This is Cosmo. And he's not
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perfect, but he isn't intended to be. He's designed after a flawed but lovable
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little hero. R2-D2 and BB-8 aren't the most advanced droids in the Star Wars
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universe, but you love them because they have character like Cosmo. Cozmo can
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detect who you are and greet you like this.
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And he has emotions like confidence, excitement, happiness, bravery, and
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more. Sometimes he will fail and he will
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complain about that. or you'll be playing a game with him and he will
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respond happily or sadly depending on if he is winning or losing. He gets
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surprised when he encounters new people or objects or even the ever dreaded
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table ledge. He feels real. It's kind of
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like playing with a dog. Sure, playing the game. Like throwing a stick or ball
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is somewhat entertaining, but the really fun part is interacting with the dog.
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The best part of Cosmo is well interacting with Cosmo. and the games
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are mostly a facilitator for that. Although I must say I did get a little
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competitive with the quicktap game. As you're just screwing around or
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completing daily goals, you will earn bits to upgrade Cosmo or unlock new
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games. And by the way, you'll never have to pay for these with real money, just
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easily acquirable in-game currency. And there should be a lot of them as the
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Anki team claims they have a multi-year road map for future upgrades. And along
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with that, you also get sparks, which are kind of like dog treats. They can be
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used to prompt Cosmo to show off and do a little trick. But as we were saying
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before, sometimes Cozmo will fail at these tasks that you have given him.
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Instead of acting like you might expect a robot to act by just repeatedly trying
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over and over again, Cozmo will get sad and lose confidence, resulting in him
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possibly trying the task in a different way or maybe even switching tasks
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altogether, yet again, making him feel more real. say he screws up big time and
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fails to recognize a table ledge causing him to fall off. First off, he's rather
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durable and should be fine. Secondly, however, he will express major
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displeasure. He will lack bravery and confidence for a while, just like a
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non-rootic being. On the flip side, when
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Cozmo is excitedly doing fun things and succeeding, he will check in with you
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from time to time, making eye contact, calling your name just like a happy kid
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would, and he'll go around and do a bunch of different things. Lots of what
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gives Cosmo this great personality, is subtle, as it should be. the emotional
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algorithms, huge library of animations, dynamic interaction, incredibly awesome
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eyes if you haven't noticed, and even a soundtrack. They aren't necessarily
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things you would actively think about, but together they make a wonderful
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experience. Now, let's look more in depth at what's happening under the
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hood. Most of the computational power for Cosmo, including AI, computer
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vision, etc., is done through your phone, meaning you need to be connected
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at all times to Cosmo's Wi-Fi network. So, just as a note, this does mean you
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won't be connected to the internet on your phone. While this does sort of suck
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to be honest, this is good for another reason, which is very possibly more
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important to you. You're always offline, meaning that no pictures or video are
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taken. No voice is recorded. Your private conversations with Cosmo or
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things that he sees and hears are yours and don't go anywhere else. This also
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means that as your phone becomes better, Cosmo can too. With various software
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upgrades, you can enhance Cosmo's activities, behaviors, and interactions.
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Anki has a multi-year road map, as we mentioned earlier, for future upgrades.
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But if you want to make your own or rely on other people's creations, they offer
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an extensive Python SDK with great documentation available at
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developer.onkey.com. Robotics programming has a crazy
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learning curve. Computer vision, path planning, 3D world modeling. All these
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things are highly difficult and this API can make them easy with simple imports
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and function calls. And if you're more interested in the artsy animation side
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of things, however, do not fear. There will be a Maya animation kit with JSON
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output available later on. Now, Cosmo is
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made up of 320 individual components,
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and it took 45 entire mechanical iterations to achieve his final form. In
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the end, for computer vision, they ended up with a forward-facing camera and a
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cliff sensor. The cliff sensor is on the bottom of Cosmo and will mainly be used
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to keep him from falling off of tables. The camera is used to detect faces and
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familiar objects with QR code style identifiable images on them. Having a
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standard size for these images enables Cosmo to detect how far away they are
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and if they're on an angle, which is great, but for things he doesn't know
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about, he can use the camera to map them into his environment so he knows to stay
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away lest he bump into them. A lot of this tech is in place to avoid what is
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called robot kidnapping or the idea of picking up Cosmo and putting him
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somewhere else, screwing up his carefully constructed map. He will then
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be able to find objects that he is used to seeing, like one of the boxes that
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has a QR code on it, map its position in the space, and then try to figure out
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where he's at. It's a smart little way to make him not be constantly constantly
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confused while you're interacting with him. Now, put all of that together into
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a cute little robot along with all the things I mentioned earlier, and you've
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got a gifted little guy with a huge amount of tricks under his sleeve. He's
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mischievous and a lot of fun, and I'm excited to check them out when they start shipping to Canada and other
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places outside the US. If you are too, go to an.com/cosmo.