If the movies have taught us anything, it’s that the future isn’t just about robots–it’s about robots that can heal, adapt, and change their entire appearance at a moment’s notice. In a future directed by Michael Bay, that plays out as a semi-truck reconfiguring itself into a bipedal fighting machine halfway through a front-flip. For now, though, the action is a little more modest. In this clip, we see the real state of the art in self-assembling bots: a bunch of little magnetic cubes scuttling around a tabletop. It’s much cooler than it sounds.
M-Blocks are a new breed of self-assembling robot currently in development at MIT. Each cube is about an inch and a half across on each face, with a flywheel on the inside and an array of magnets on the outside. By spinning the flywheel at high speeds–up to 20,000 revolutions per minute–the self-contained units can scoot across tables and flip themselves through the air. Once they come close to another block, a clever system of self-aligning magnets attaches them to their partner. Seeing a single cube clamber on top of another isn’t especially impressive. But watch several move at once, with disparate parts moving independently and the larger whole rapidly taking a totally new form, and you can start to see a hazy path towards Optimus Prime (A character from the Transformers franchise).
MIT M-Blocks engineering team (L-to-R) John Romanishin, Daniela Rus and Kyle Gilpin (Click Image To Enlarge)
Kyle Gilpin, a researcher who’s working on the project along with John Romanishin and robotics professor Daniela Rus, says there are precedents for various aspects of the design, but the way M-Blocks puts them together is entirely new. There are some bots that use magnets to bond, Gilpin points out, and others that use flywheels for movement, but there aren’t any that use these things towards an autonomously reconfiguring end. Plus, the setup is far more elegant than previous attempts at assembling bots, many of which had unwieldy external components. Gilpin says.
“In general, our system is unique because everything is exceedingly simple. The modules in the video only have two motors–one to spin the flywheel and another to actuate the braking mechanism. Likewise, the bonding mechanism is completely passive. The magnets self-align and naturally draw neighboring M-Blocks together.”
MIT engineering team reveals the inner workings of their M-Blocks (Click Image To Enlarge)
That magnetic bonding system is worth a closer look. Each cube’s face has four magnets, making for a firm attachment when two modules are face-to-face. The edge of each cube has two additional cylindrical magnets, which freely rotate as the cubes approach each other, aligning north and south poles. These edges are also beveled, so when cubes are face-to-face, there’s a gap between these edge magnets; when one starts to flip itself to another face of its neighbor, the edge magnets come in direct contact, forming a strong anchor on which the blocks can flip. The beauty of this passive linking system is that it all happens on the outside of the modules, requiring nothing in the way of electronics or motors to control.
The team is currently working on giving the ‘bots a bit more autonomy. In the video, the cubes are being controlled by hand via a remote control. Gilpin says.
“As a result, it’s difficult to accurately control the flywheel velocity and the exact moment at which the brake is applied.”
If you thought controlling a toy helicopter was tough, try sticking a landing with a lurching magnetic cube. The latest generation of the modules have the computational capacity to automate the movement themselves, and the team is currently hashing out the code to drive it all.
But they’re also thinking towards real world applications, something that will require a more diverse collection of blocks. Some might have a single, more powerful flywheel, allowing them to move several blocks at once, dragging themselves and neighbors as one cohesive unit. The researchers are also considering passive, non-moving blocks battery blocks which could charge neighboring modules, giving the entire system the ability to travel greater distances and climb more challenge obstacles. Lacking motors of their own, these could be tossed around as needed by the other modules, Gilpin says.
That’s just the start, though. The team envisions M-Blocks with cameras or claw-like grippers–specialized blocks that could be carried by others and put in place for other jobs. Romanishin explained in a report from MIT.
“We want hundreds of cubes, scattered randomly across the floor, to be able to identify each other, coalesce, and autonomously transform into a chair, or a ladder, or a desk, on demand.”
When you’ve reached that point, you have to start asking: How many desks does it take to build an Autobot?
COMMENTARY: M-Blocks remind me a lot of Modular Robotics' "Cubelets," toy blocks that snap together with magnets and unlock interesting electronic powers, like sensors, motors, and data displays. I wrote about them in a blog post dated March 8, 2011. The cubelets standard kit comes with 20 magnetic blocks ($300) that can be snapped together to make an endless variety of robots with no programming and no wires. You can build robots that drive around on a tabletop, respond to light, sound, and temperature, and have surprisingly lifelike behavior. But instead of programming that behavior, you snap the cubelets together and watch the behavior emerge like with a flock of birds or a swarm of bees.
M-Blocks are a lot more complicated than the Cubelets because each individual block contains their own logic board, motors, flywheels, breakers and magnets that operate autonomously (on their own without human intervention) allowing the M-Blocks to create patterns of blocks that take the form of shapes like a square, a stack, a pattern, and so forth.
What wasn't too clear in the article and video, is exactly how the M-blocks know what final shape they will take when they go into "construction" mode. The fact that each M-block contains more moving parts than the cubelets described above, raises the issue of durability and mechanical breakdowns. What happens when a fly wheel breaks, or the break motor malfunctions?
M-Blocks are still in early development, and a lot of kinks still need to be worked out. My personal belief is that MIT team should incorporate an industry standard operating system platform so that third party developers can create apps to give the M-Blocks a broad range of functionality similar to the Sifteo Cubes developed by another group of MIT robotic engineers. You can read about the Sifteo Cubes in my blog posts dated March 21, 2011 and August 16, 2011.
Courtesy of an article dated October 9, 2013 appearing in Wired
IT’S LEGO’S FIRST MAJOR UPDATE TO THEIR PROGRAMMABLE LINE OF ROBOTS IN SIX YEARS--A REDESIGN TO BE MORE SOCIAL, CONNECTED, AND APPROACHABLE FOR KIDS AND ADULTS ALIKE.
A lot has changed since 2006. Social networks rule. Smartphones are no longer a luxury for the geek elite. And every kid knows the word “app.”
So maybe it’s only natural that each of these ideas worked themselves into Lego Mindstorms EV3, Lego’s first major refresh of the Mindstorms line since 2006. If you aren’t familiar, Mindstorms are Lego’s programmable robotic parts--a brain, motors, and sensors--that interface with their Technic line.
Click Images To Enlarge
Technology concept lead Oliver Wallington explains.
“Children today don’t perceive robots as industrial machines. A robot is something of a character. It has a personality. It could be humanoid or an animal, but certainly something with a mind of its own. People might say 'iPhone--that’s the way Lego fashion should go!' But really, when you build an iPhone into a Lego Technic model, they just clash. We have to complement the models.”
Click Images To Enlarge
So while the Mindstorms kit is intended to fuel infinite creativity, it’ll be marketed with five “character” designs, which were partly inspired from Lego’s conversations with children themselves. One design is a snake, while another is a humanoid, while yet another is a rover-like tank. The idea is to appeal to almost any child’s particular interests, using characters as a gateway into creation.
Global project lead Camilla Bottke adds.
“The play, look, and feel has been modeled for children. But the hardware has been made to also embrace adult users.”
Click Images To Enlarge
So Mindstorms walks an interesting line of approachability and depth and youth and maturity. It’s designed very intently to be playable within 20 minutes without anything more than a few nonverbal instructions, what the company calls a “Christmas morning” appeal. It helps that Mindstorms now include IR sensors (allowing simple remote control). Additionally, each Mindstorms block holds the basics to programming--a single setting--that can be activated on the body, while the rest of the options lurk on a computer. So a motor can be set to start and stop, or aimed in a particular direction, right on the brick.
But to delve deeper, to make the motor skid or do other advanced maneuvers, the bricks will need to sync via USB or Bluetooth to a computer. In fact, to appeal to adult engineers, the Intelligent Brick (brain) will even run Linux and support SD storage expansion along with Wi-Fi dongles. It’s “future proofing,” we’re told, that’s intended to promote long-term hacking by a global community. Because in the cloud, kids and adults alike will be able to share their programs in an open-source environment, uploading code for others to download into their creations. It’s like Lego’s Github.
Of course, we haven’t even gotten to the iOS and Android support yet. The details of these apps still seem to be in the works, but no doubt they could prove to be even more essential to programming the next wave of Mindstorms than a PC, assuming Lego digs that deep with the UI. One need only look at the success of Atoms Express, an iOS-based Kickstarter project much like Mindstorms, to recognize the potential here.
Mindstorms EV3 will be available in the second half of 2013 for $350.
COMMENTARY: Lego Project Leader Camilla Bottke demo-ed the new Mindstorms EV3 programmable robots at CES 2013 in Las Vegas. You can watch the video by clickingHERE.
Courtesy of an article dated January 10, 2013 appearing in Fast Company Design
From its aerie in sylvan Finland, Rovio gave us Angry Birds. Now it wants to be the Disney of the Internet age.
For more than 200 million people every month, Angry Birds land is a state of mind: a digital immersion in addictively cheerful destruction, a refuge from the boredom of subway commutes and doctors' waiting rooms, where the fine art of sling-shotting tiny, brightly hued birds at wooden fortresses to vanquish pigs taking shelter inside makes eminent sense and is incredibly gratifying.
Over the past three years, this not-so-peaceful pastime has amassed legions of followers, incited fierce battles between parents and their tablet-weaned children, and won professions of love from the likes of Justin Bieber via Twitter and Dick Cheney on the Today show.
Rovio CEO Mikael Hed, and his cousin Niklas Hed play with some of their merchandise menagerie at company headquarters in Espoo. | Photographs by Markus Henttonen (Click Image To Enlarge)
But what I'm experiencing now is not just a state of mind. I am being hoisted 50 feet up into the clean air of Tampere, Finland, and as I rise, I gaze upon the physical manifestation of Angry Birds mania: a carousel ride with the familiar red fowl as mounts, bouncing up and down as if in flight; a soaring, wooden-framed play area with winding tubes, slides, and monkey bars; giant, spherical green hogs with bulging eyes, perched above replicas of small towns with attractions like the Pig Popper, which lets visitors shoot swine with plastic balls for prizes. And then, as I'm suspended over the real Angry Birds Land here at Säerkäenniemi Amusement Park, the upward trajectory of my drop-tower ride stops with a jerk--at which point, like many a phenomenon that has reached its zenith, we plummet to the ground.
Espoo, about 100 miles south of Tampere, Sweden doesn't feel like the kind of place that would spawn the next major entertainment franchise. It is a supremely peaceful city and, though only about a half-hour drive from the Finnish capital of Helsinki, surrounded by a vast pine forest. Yet Espoo is home to Rovio, the creator of Angry Birds, which, since its debut in the Apple App Store in December 2009, has set the standard of success for mobile apps. The game notched 50 million downloads in its first year and sat atop the paid app charts for 275 days. Angry Birds Space, a follow-up that features pig-popping birds amid distant planets and galaxies, rocketed to the No. 1 spot in the App Store in 116 countries after its release in March and recorded the fastest launch of any mobile game, with 50 million downloads in 35 days. Along with two other sequels, Rio and Seasons, the Angry Birds menagerie has been downloaded more than 1 billion times.
Angry Birds Merchandise By Steve Heisler These lovable if not emotionally unstable fowls have shot from iOS purgatory into the marketing utopia of band-aids, doggy toys, and Cheese Nips. We sought out to test the old maxim: Is an Angry Bird in the hand(held device) worth two pairs of children’s underpants in the bush? The culprits, stars earned for brand ambassadorship:
Angry Birds Merchandise (Click Image To Enlarge)
Now Rovio wants to build on its App Store superstardom. In August, when I meet with its management team--Mikael Hed, the company's CEO; Niklas Hed, its founder; and Peter Vesterbacka, its chief marketing officer--the company is working on several app projects: Angry
Birds Toons - A weekly series of animated shorts spun off from the promotional trailers Rovio posts on its wildly popular YouTube channel (which boasts more than 750 million views).
3-D Animated Movie - Secheduled for release in 2015 or 2016 (to be executive-produced by David Maisel, the guy who sold Marvel Entertainment to Disney, in 2009, for $4.3 billion).
Rovio is solidifying its status as a merchandising giant, with nearly 40% of its roughly $200 million in revenues coming from its licensing operations.
To support these plans, it has ramped up employment from 28 last year to more than 450 today, staffing a growing number of departments with names like books and learning, animation, and consumer products. Besides Tampere, the company has opened offices in Shanghai; Stockholm; Tokyo; Seoul, South Korea; and Santa Monica, California. Tellingly, Rovio has changed its name from Rovio Mobile to Rovio Entertainment. Some analysts have reportedly valued the company at $9 billion, sparking rumors of an IPO soon.
Angry Birds stuffed toys include the famous Angry Bird characters and the Pigs (Click Image To Enlarge)
If that sounds like a fledgling version of that Magic Kingdom across the sea (Disney's market cap: $93.4 billion; revenue: $41 billion), you're not far off the mark. Rather than merely licensing toys, Rovio is looking to create a universe that spans mediums, with each realm supporting the others. Several members of the Rovio flock, including Vesterbacka, have publicly acknowledged the company's ambitions to be a 21st-generation Disney. Mikael is only a little more circumspect. He says.
"From our starting point to right now, we've always thought, What is the biggest business we can build out of this? And I sincerely believe we can build this into a very major entertainment company."
In his polite Finnish way, he is telling Disney CEO Bob Iger, I'm coming for you.
Angry Birds includes kids apparel like these T-shirts in several sizes and colors, and printed with the Angry Bird characters (Click Image To Enlarge)
The vaulting ambitions have engendered a good deal of skepticism. Disney has created hundreds of properties that have put it at the forefront of movies, television, merchandise, and tourism for decades. Rovio has yet to replicate the success of its single-game franchise, which features animals that can't even talk; its big hope for the summer, a new game called Amazing Alex about a boy and his Rube Goldberg-like machines, did well initially but quickly fizzled. So to many, the Rovio boys seem like the App Store equivalents of a Mega Millions lottery winner, guys who got lucky and struck it rich overnight. In fact, the gestation period of Angry Birds was just a little bit longer.
Angry Birds also includes a broad selection of bags of all types printed with the Angry Bird characters (Click Image To Enlarge)
Mikael Hed, 36, Rovio's CEO, in many ways embodies Scandinavian modesty. A slender, looming figure, he pours me a cup of coffee before we sit down on the sectional couch in his large corner office. On his desk, I notice a Walt Disney World baseball cap covering one of Rovio's products--an iPod speaker in the shape of a villainous pig from the Angry Birdsgame. When I point out the irony, he takes a deep breath and stares pensively out the window at the bay behind the building. (He will do so many times during the course of our interview.) Hhe says.
"All that we've built on the back of Angry Birds has been a very deliberate thing,"
If his attitude sounds sober for a one-hit wonder, I should point out that Angry Birds was the company's 52nd release.
While it's the enterprising Helsinki-bred Mikael who has driven Rovio's rapid expansion from gaming to everything else, it is his small-town 32-year-old first cousin, Niklas--a gamer's gamer who doesn't hesitate to proclaim his distaste for the business side of the enterprise--who started things off. Blond, blue-eyed, and sprightly, almost childlike, he'd much rather roam the office, reviewing game demos and products, than manage schedules and negotiate with partners. When I first interviewed Niklas in 2011, he seemed ambivalent about the various extensions of the Angry Birds brand. And at the Rovio offices, during what seems to be a serious meeting with Mikael and a couple of other executives, I can see through the room's glass walls that Niklas is flipping a bottle of water in the air. "When you're having back-to-back meetings, you don't feel that creative anymore," he tells me later.
Niklas founded Relude, as Rovio was originally called, in 2003, with two classmates at Helsinki University of Technology after they won a game-development competition sponsored by Nokia and HP, which netted them a suite of mobile devices and software-development tools. They caught the attention of Peter Vesterbacka, the founder of the competition, who encouraged them to use their winnings to launch their own game-development studio. Niklas says.
"It was the kick-start to everything. I just wanted to make the best games in the world."
They worked out of their dorm rooms till Mikael, who had an MBA from Tulane, in New Orleans, joined the company and helped the team set up an actual office. His entrepreneur father, Kaj, invested 1 million euros in the startup and became chairman. Kaj also renamed the company Rovio, which is Finnish for "bonfire."
Rovio marketing chief Peter Vesterbacka has his sights set on Disney. | Photograph by Markus Henttonen (Click Image To Enlarge)
The company did well in work-for-hire jobs, developing games for Electronic Arts, Nokia, and Real Networks. But Rovio struggled when it tried to create its own games. It attempted to carve out a niche in the hard-core horror and shoot-'em-up genres. The games consistently flopped, and Rovio foundered. After clashes over the direction of the company, Mikael left in frustration, and in 2008, Rovio slashed employment from 50 to 12. Niklas says.
"It was the worst time of my life."
Then Apple introduced the iPhone and the App Store, and everything changed. Niklas saw the App Store as the perfect way to sell a game. He would no longer have to haggle with manufacturers and mobile carriers or modify games to be compatible with different devices. If the company could get just one good game into the App Store, it would instantly have millions of potential customers. Niklas persuaded Mikael to return and set Rovio's developers to work on small-format games.
They struck pay dirt with their first idea. Rovio's lead designer, Jaakko Isalo, showed the team an image he created of a group of round, frowning, multicolored birds walking toward a pile of like-colored blocks. A player would tap a block, and a bird of the corresponding color would jump on the block and destroy it. The team added a slingshot so the birds could fling themselves at the structures, heightening the fun factor and taking advantage of the iPhone's touch screen. Pretty soon, everyone in the Rovio office was addicted; employees started keeping score of their intramural games on spreadsheets. No one at Rovio knew anyone at Apple, so the company brought in Chillingo, a U.K.-based games publisher, to negotiate a deal and market the game.
When Angry Birds was released, in December 2009, a few hundred downloads were enough to make it No. 1 in Finland, Sweden, and Norway. The following February, after Chillingo finally persuaded Apple to feature it as the game of the week on the App Store's front page, Angry Birds shot to No. 1 in the United Kingdom. Five months later, it rose to the top of the U.S. charts as well. The free Android version launched in October 2010; it racked up 2 million downloads in three days, crashing the servers of GetJar, an app market for independent developers. The game, which took only $100,000 to develop, was a global hit.
Winning fans is one matter; holding on to them is another. Rather than pour money into sequels, Rovio's strategy has been to keep the game fresh by adding levels to it. Angry Birdshad 63 levels when it was released; it now has more than 360. The upgrades are free, but they pay off by keeping the users engaged; the game remains the Apple Store's all-time best-selling app. Mikael says.
"Now we have real fans who live and breathe the thing that we created."
That loyalist army has let Rovio push beyond games.
Branded Merchandise - In the fall of 2010, Angry Birds soft plush toys and T-shirts reached U.S. shelves. Within a week, about 40% of the inventory had been sold. Besides keeping the birds top of mind, Rovio's update strategy also generates new characters to sell against. The company adds levels pegged to holidays, too, supporting sales of greeting cards, costumes, and other real-world products. Rovio now has more than 400 partners, from Coca-Cola to Intel to Kraft; collectively, they have developed 20,000 products on sale just about everywhere except Africa. Lisa Shamus, executive vice president at Commonwealth Toy & Novelty, a New York manufacturer that makes Angry Birds plush toys, magnets, snow globes, and key chains says. "The guys at Rovio have a true category killer."Shamus projects that retail sales of its Angry Birds merchandise will double to $400 million worldwide this year.
Food and Candy - To that lode, according to Chicago market research firm SymphonyIRIGroup, you can add $6 million of Angry Birds fruit snacks and gummy candy from Healthy Food Brands.
Consumer Electronics - A $100Angry Birds video-streaming box that also lets you play the game on your TV, now Roku's most popular product.
Kids Toys - $15 million of Angry Birds squishy toys and night-lights by Tech 4 Kids.
Kids Apparel - Angry Bird underwear by Fruit of the Loom is the highest-selling item at Kohl's and Walmart.
Licensed Branded Merchandise - Angry Birds is now the locomotive pulling Mattel. Lutz Muller, a toy industry analyst and founder of Klosters Trading Corp., estimates that the company's Rovio license bumped up its market share in board games from 4% to 12%. Rovio receives royalties for all of it, ranging from 5% to 20%, suggesting that total sales of Angry Birds merchandise might approach $650 million or so.
But wealth, like beauty, has a price. Sorting out hits and misses has become a major time commitment. I bear witness to the travails on the consumer-licensing floor in Espoo, where I visit what Rovio affectionately calls the chamber of horrors--several tables spilling over with product prototypes, including a pair of boxers that asks for "angry kisses." A team of six employees sifts through the backlog of 10,000 submissions.
Niklas admits,
"We have so many initiatives, and some of those are complete shit. But it doesn't matter, because we will learn from them, and we're willing to take the risk."
When we meet on his first day back from his four-week summer vacation, mandated for all Finns. (The day is also his first as "founder"; he stepped down as chief operating officer because the job became overwhelming and exacerbated his compulsion to inspect and perfect.)
While in Espoo, I visit a playground that looks much like any other in any country in the world. Located between an apartment complex and the site of a future elementary school, it contains slides, tire swings, and a wooden rope bridge. The difference is that this one is adorned with Angry Birds characters and panels that make it look like a pig fortress from the video game. When I arrive, only a few kids are scattered about, climbing and jumping. But within 20 minutes, the place is buzzing with the laughter and screams of nearly 50 children; school has just let out. Kate Sevelius of her 4- and 5-year-old granddaughters, Linnea and Stella says.
"They play the game and heard about the park, and they've been so excited for me to pick them up from day care."
Stella tells me, in Finnish, that she loves playing Angry Birds on her father's iPad, before dashing back to the tire swing.
Candy, toys, and books are the fodder of traditional licensing programs, but Rovio's newest brand-spreading mission is to make Angry Birds part of daily life. The playgrounds, or activity parks, as Rovio calls them, are essential to this exercise. The park I visited is one of 11 Angry Birds-branded playgrounds that the company has developed with the Finnish company Lappset. The playgrounds are financed by cities or apartment complexes--Lappset builds them and makes the equipment; Rovio gets a licensing fee. In all, Rovio and Lappset have lined up deals expected to yield several hundred playgrounds within a year.
In May 2012, Angry Birds Land opened inside Sarkanniemi Amusement Park in Tampere, Finland (Click Image To Enlarge)
Aerial view of Angry Birds Land inside Sarkanniemi Amusement Park in Tampere, Finland (Click Image To Enlarge)
The playground gambit is a clear break from Disney's centralized, collectivist road map. Disney started local; in the early 1930s, Disney built community with the Mickey Mouse Clubs, in which hordes of kids would gather on a Saturday afternoon in a movie theater to recite the Mickey Mouse pledge, sing with the Mickey Mouse band, and watch Mickey Mouse cartoons. But in the mid-'30s, when nationwide membership surpassed a million, Disney began phasing out the clubs because of the trouble of administering them. Instead, the company pulled in. By the 1950s, it had brought the club to TV and opened Disneyland.
Rovio intends to keep the action close to the customer's home. Vesterbacka, 44, the Rovio marketing chief, who joined the company in 2010 says.
"We want to create a distributed model. Instead of fans visiting a theme park every three or four years, the brand is right here where people live."
This model might have been the one Walt had followed if he had lived in 21st-century Finland. The distributed plan fits well with the Internet age, when little things matter as much as the big ones. Not unlike creating links on the web, Rovio aims to support its real-world push by connecting the physical and digital realms and blurring the boundaries between them. A line of Angry Birds toys from Hasbro will come with an alphanumeric code that will unlock additional levels of the game, as do new toys from Mattel when swiped over the surface of an iPad. The toys are a follow-up to a scavenger hunt that Rovio and Walmart ran earlier this year, pegged to the launch of Angry Birds Space, in which customers went through the store and scanned product bar codes that revealed clues within the game.
The apotheosis of the digital-real world connection will be Angry Birds Magic Places, a game feature that will use the GPS or near-field-communications technology on players' phones to reward them with power-ups and hidden levels when they visit certain physical landmarks, including the Angry Birds activity parks. Rovio piloted Magic at Barnes & Noble last year. The bookseller wouldn't reveal how many customers the trial brought into the stores, but Rovio has lined up other commercial partners to participate, including 1,500 McDonald's in China.
Rovio is embedding Angry Birds in everyday devices, too. Earlier this year, Rovio teamed up with Samsung to include a motion-controlled Angry Birds game on its smart TVs. In November, the company will launch the Rovio Channel, letting users of the Samsung sets download games as well as the coming Angry Birds Toons show and a comic-book series. (The channel is independent of cable service.) The potential audience is big; Samsung is on track to sell 25 million of the TVs by the end of the year. Vesterbacka says.
"Every smart TV will get the Angry Birds update. It gives us massive distribution."
The channel will also launch on Mac, PC, iOS, and Android devices, but the TV is an object that millions of families use together every day.
The company is also taking a wider view of the world than Disney did at its inception. When I meet Vesterbacka, he's hours away from hopping a plane to China--his third trip there in a month--where Rovio has been expanding aggressively since the 2011 launch of its Shanghai office. Over the summer, the company opened three retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai to sell its merchandise, with 200 more planned within the next year. It will have three playgrounds in the country by the end of 2012, too. Vesterbacka says.
"Over time, China will be our biggest market. It's important for us to be very local. We want to be more Chinese than the Chinese companies."
China is far from Finland; then again, so is just about every country in the world, psychically if not geographically, and some wonder whether Rovio might have trouble judging overseas opportunities from its Nordic aerie. It sometimes seems to latch onto partners mainly because they are famous, without a clear understanding of how the project would advance Rovio's franchise. It has formed partnerships with Lucasfilm (for Angry Birds Star Wars, which merely swaps bird avatars for the familiar characters in reenactments of the films), the Philadelphia Eagles (presumably birds of a feather, for an Angry Birds game set at the Eagles' stadium), and even with the punk-rock group Green Day (in which the band members appear as green pigs).
Fans and critics swiftly declared that Rovio had jumped the shark with the cobranded web games. "The Philadelphia Eagles-Branded Version of Angry Birds Looks Terrible," read one headline from Deadspin. "Cute mobile game now suffers from overexposure," went another pan from IT World. Of the Star Wars game, Petri Jaervilehto, Rovio's executive vice president of games, says:
"The basic concept is that we take two of the biggest brands on the planet and create something unique."
The partnership could deliver big merchandise sales, but though the game is fun, even some of his colleagues find it a little corny, including Rovio's director of development, Kalle Kaivola, with whom I battle Sith lords. he laughs as he calls down a Millennium Falcon to clear out all the pigs.
"This is one of those moments where you're like, Okay, guys, Jesus."
A lot is at stake, for all the plush toys and playgrounds and foreign incursions in the world will be forgotten if Rovio can't fashion another hit game to keep the franchise fresh. And finally, it has a contender: Bad Piggies.
This time around, the pigs get the spotlight, with nary a bird or slingshot in sight. They are stranded on a desert island, and after they spot a stash of eggs--the ones they notoriously pilfer in Angry Birds--they plot a route to reach them. Their map gets shredded, though, and the player must help the pigs build vehicles from random items and tools like balloons, crates, and soda bottles to retrieve the scattered map fragments and make their way to the eggs. The most appealing aspect of the game is the fun-loving, goofy personality of the pigs. As endearing as the angry birds, they give Rovio a new set of franchise characters. Fans seem to agree: Within three hours of its September launch, Bad Piggies was No. 1 in Apple's U.S. App Store, beating the record set by Angry Birds Space.
However long Bad Piggies stays aloft (it was still in first place in October), Rovio has colonized new territory. It is the first company ever to build a major entertainment franchise from an app. And the competition is paying attention. Two years ago, Disney declared that it needed to start looking beyond princesses in order to find the next great character. It then adopted Rovio's template, creating a mobile game, Where's My Water, featuring Swampy the Alligator, soon to star in his own cartoon series. In one small instance, the student has become the master.
Before I leave Finland, I ask Mikael about a critical blog post that was getting a lot of attention, called "The Fall of Angry Birds."
"I know the article that you refer to."
Mikael says flatly, then swiftly jumps from his desk to a dry-erase board and draws, in green marker, two arcs--the first, a narrow curve with a pronounced fall-off from its peak; the second, a much broader curve triple the height of the first. He says, drawing an arrow to the crest of the first figure.
'A lot of our competitors have an equally myopic view. They've found this hill, and say, here's the maximum amount of money you can make with a mobile game. But what we're building (he moves to the other arc) is about the lifetime value of a fan. That picture is much more interesting."
COMMENTARY: I am not a game player, either online or via mobile app. However, in June 2011, Google launched its Google+ social network, and the newly-launched social network included about a dozen free games for its users. One of those games was Angry Birds. I have to admit that I got hooked for about a day. Was actually able to get to level 9 before those mean spirited Angry Birds beat me. I decided right there and then, that I would not play Angry Birds ever again for fear I would become inescapably addicted, and thereby contributing to the huge "time suck" that Angry Birds has unleashed on society and businesses in general. I wrote about Angry Birds in a blog post dated January 15, 2012, which reported how Angry Birds had become the No 1 most downloaded mobile app of 2011.
In May 2012, Rovio reported 1 billion in combined downloads of Angry Birds across all platforms (iOS and Android dominate) including both regular and special editions, the game has been called "one of the most mainstream games out right now","one of the great runaway hits of 2010",and "the largest mobile app success the world has seen so far". At $0.99 per download, this translates to $1 billion in revenues since Angry Birds was first introduced in December 2009.
As you can clearly see, the Angry Birds franchise is not just about games starring those Angry Birds and the Pigs, but a strategy built on brand extension. It's similar to what Tylenol has done with its pain-killer pills or what Disney has done with its kids animated characters, to name a few. Rovio is developing products built around the Angry Birds brand that will get the biggest pop and reach the largest number of young children. That they have been able to do this in such a haphazard manner is a miracle in itself. Rovio has been able to do this because Angry Birds has become an iconic brand that is universal appeal and brand recognition by munchkins throughtout the world. Even the parents and milions of other grownups have gotten in on those Angry Bird thing. I almost got hooked myself. So what if it has some losers along the way, the guys at Rovio are having a lot of fun building a small empire. And, when you love what you are doing, and it all seems to work, its not so much about the strategy, but about the tremendous pulling power of the Angry Birds brand name. This is a billion dollar brand, people. Mark my words.
Courtesy of an article dated November 26, 2012 appearing in Fast Company and an article dated May 9, 2012 appearing in TheNextWeb
ROMO IS THE FIRST PERSONAL ROBOT THAT USES YOUR iPHONE AND SPECIAL APP. THE RESULT IS A ROMO ROBOT WITH SHARP TEETH AND TANK LEGS. BUT ROMO HUMANIZES TECHNOLOGY BY GIVING ROBOTS A PERSONALITY.
There’s a scene in Rocky IV that’s easily the worst in the series. Rocky, now swimming in money, has a robot butler bring out a cake for Paulie. Rocky tells Paulie to make a wish. Paulie responds,
“I wish I wasn’t in this nightmare!”
I can’t explain why any filmmaker could think the scene was a good idea, beyond maybe one unavoidable fact: For all the neat stuff mankind has built, ultimately we all want a robo buddy.
If Romo feels like an Apple product from an alternate dimension, that's by design, because Romo is modeled after the Bondi blue iMac (Click Image To Enlarge)
Romo is a Kickstarter project that reimagines the iPhone as a quirky, autonomous robot. It’s the second generation of the maker-friendly bot. Docking with a battery-powered tank, Romo can move around the room on his own, recognize faces, and initiate teleconferencing. But he’s also skinnable with all sorts of personalities, giving the iPhone a presence beyond the anonymous slab of glass.
For version two, the Romotive team wanted to create something more friendly, more approachable, so they teamed with a designer from Frog to dig through Apple’s lineage in this regard.
Romo's face will eventually be user-skinnable, like a Mr. Potato Head (Click Image To Enlarge)
Otherwise, Roma can autonomously navigate through your home while enabling video conferencing on demand (Click Image To Enlarge)
Romotive’s Jen McCabe tells Co.Design.
“We looked at the cases for all the Apple devices, from the original Mac to the MacBook Air. This robot is actually our attempt at the Boni Blue iMac. The design made computers accessible. We wanted the same thing for Romo.”
And Romo makes us wonder, what would it be like if the iPhone came with a face, standard? (Click Image To Enlarge)
With the friendly body in place, the team wanted to reskin Romo’s personality, too. Using custom software and help from an animator who’s worked on PBS children’s cartoons, the team worked to further capitalize on the tone of accessibility.
McCabe asks.
“How do we build a robot that has functions but is not creepy? We started developing a character--a kind of alien. He makes his own utterances like R2D2.”
Romo can even help bring you your morning cup of java (Click Image To Enlarge)
But at its heart, Romo is a platform for modders and makers. So the team made a difficult design decision, to allow users to change Romo’s very identity. In development now is a platform that allows a digital reskinning and revoicing of Romo’s personality. Users will be able to drag and drop new faces much like they’re giving a facelift to Mr. Potato Head.
And when it comes right down to it -- Romo is one fun contraption that will provide your children hours of playtime (Click Image To Enlarge)
McCabe says.
“The goal has not been to impose [on] Romo a singular personality, but create the first personal robot for everyone.”
And that’s obviously a compelling idea. Romo has already greatly exceeded its funding goal on Kickstarter, but it’s not too late to pre-order your own for $150.
COMMENTARY: Damn it, why can't Samsung, HTC or Google make an Android phone and app that can create a Romo-like robot too? Why should Apple have all the fun? Romo definitely takes the field of robotics to a whole new level: personalization. The apps could be designed to perform certain things depending on your specific needs. Maybe it could become a clock that will wake you up in the morning as it runs circles around your nightstand as it growls: "Wake up, it's time to go to work!" It could even sing Christmas carols and pretend its Santa or Rudolf the Red-Nosed reindeer.
Romo is a BYOD robot (bring your own devices). The engineers at ROmotive made Romo easy to operate using a wide variety of Apple devices. At the present time, Romo will only allow users to dock their iPhone 4, iPhone 4S or iPod Touch 4. I assume that the engineers at Romotive are working on an iPhone 5 version. You can drive your Romo robot using an app designed for the following devices:
iPod Touch 3rd Generation and up
iPhone 4
iPhone 4S
iPhone 5
iPhone 3GS
iPad 2
New iPad
any Mac computer running OS 10.6 or later
Web browsers including any version of Chrome (Google), Safari (Apple), and Firefox (Mozilla)
Romo is the first wallet-friendly (relatively cheap) and backpack-sized consumer robot on the market that does these things:
Remote 2-way telepresence
Computer vision
Autonomous navigation
Facial recognition
Romotive will also provide developers with a SDK kit so that they can create their own apps and share them with Romo owners. Sounds like the Apple business model all over again.
I just checked Romotive's project page on Kickstarter, and they have already raised $149,808 from 969 contributors, exceeding their goal of $100,000.
Courtesy of an article dated November 12, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design
Lego Great Ball contraption moves balls from one spot to another (Click Imge To Enlarge)
Designed by Lego, they’re called Great Ball Contraptions. All they do is move miniature balls from one place to another--in the most complicated manner mechanically possible. For the Lego Technic-loving designer/engineer, they’re an elite, Rube Golderberg-esque litmus test of skills.
Click Images To Enlarge
But one epic build by 'Akiyuky’ may have just put all others to shame. It’s 100 feet of a ball-moving assembly line, constructed over 600 hours, with each new turn representing another ingenious mechanism in moving and sorting. My personal favorite moment happens about 2:00 in, as a triad of catapults launch the balls at a basketball hoop, but only those that make it move on to the next stage.
Any of us who talk about design on a daily basis inevitably focus on an idea of core elegance, when simplicity, efficiency, and functionality combine in a fundamentally beautiful product. It’s a fun wake-up call to remember just how much delight one can find in the total opposite end of the spectrum, that inefficiency, overwroughtness, and sheer organizational absurdity has its place in the joy of design, too.
That said, I do appreciate the fact that my phone doesn’t take me through this contraption every time I check my email. Though every once in a while, it wouldn’t be the worst thing.
COMMENTARY: Lego's Great Ball Contraption is an absolutely remarkable piece of mechanical toy technology. I would never believe it if I had not watched the video. The kids will go absolutely crazy over Lego's latest wonder. Can the technical toy wizards at Lego ever out do this?
The Hugvie robotic pillow allows people who are fr apart to feel like they are together (Click Image To Enlarge)
As more families rely on technology to provide methods of communication when separated, a roboticist in Japan is attempting to replicate the human connection lost in a long distance relationship.
Developed by Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, the “Hugvie” is a brightly-colored pillow in an extremely generic shape of a person. Within the large cushion, there is a pocket that’s designed to house a smartphone or regular cell phone during a call. According to Ishiguro, the Hugvie uses a micro-controller and two vibrating discs to “translate” the emotions of the caller’s voice into physical form. The two vibrators act in conjunction to replicate a human heartbeat. The speed as well as the intensity of the heartbeat is completely dependent on the volume and mood of the calle
The Hugvie robotic pillow works with your cellphone to produce a huggy-feelie sensation (Click Image To Enlarge)
The current iteration of the product is being targeted at seniors and children. For instance, a parent on an out-of-town business trip could speak to their child while the youngster was wrapped around the Hugvie. The elderly could use it when speaking to a distant family member or primary caregiver over the phone. Future iterations of the design may be specifically targeted to people in a long distance relationship.
When explaining a design that offers a higher level of interactivity, Ishiguro stated:
“We’d like to develop this into a robot with an internal frame. We could build in lots of vibrators and special sensors, so that when you hug it, the other person’s robot moves as well. So far, I don’t think there has been a really soft robot. If we make this one a bit more complex, we could create something that really feels like a person while you’re hugging it.”
The Hugvie costs approximately $60 and is currently on display at the Vstone Robot Center in Tokyo. Osaka University’s Professor Ishiguro is also responsible for the development of the Telenoid, a portable teleoperated android robot that simulates a physical presence for someone in another location. The built-in speakers within the Telenoid play the voice of the caller and the human-like face replicates the emotional state of the caller as the caller’s face is being watched through a webcam.
COMMENTARY: The first time that I saw the Hugvie robotic pillow I thought it was a bit creepy, but upon reflection, I think it's a fantastic novel idea that I think is going to catch on. It would be an ideal gift for couples and a neat way to pacify young children. Both would get a big charge out of feeling Hugvie do its vibration magic.
Courtesy of an article dated April 28, 2012 appearing inDigital Trends
A new app for Lego allows users to create stop-motion movies with DC superhero characters, edit them, and share them--all on an iPhone.
There are few things the Internet likes better than a Lego-based video. This has not gone unnoticed by the people at Lego, who have just released an app that lets users of all ages create mini movies based on the toy.
San Francisco-based agency Pereira & O’Dellworked with Lego to launch the DC Super Hero Movie Maker app, which is now available on iTunes. The app helps kids (and adult nerds) pretend to be Tim Burton and create stop-motion superhero movies on their iPhones.
"We wanted to create an unique experience that helps bridge the gap between the digital world and the physical world of Lego,"
The agency worked closely with the Lego Super Heroes brand team to develop the concept and design of the app and brought in Portland mobile development and design studio Uncorked to bring the idea to life.
The app turns your phone into a functional edit bay, where you can trim down scenes starring DC Universe Super Heroes, and add title cards and music. The odds are you’ll do a better job of it than Joel Schumacher did with Batman & Robin. And since you won’t be ashamed of the finished product, you can use the app’s easy sharing functionality to show it off.
COMMENTARY: The LEGO® Super Hero Movie Maker by The LEGO Group was released April 18, 2012 and is available for FREE downloading through iTunes. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad.Requires iOS 4.3 or later.
The LEGO DC Super Heroes Movie Maker iPhone app helps your child bring their LEGO DC Universe Super Heroes come to life.
LEGO DC Universe Super Heroes are sold separately (Click Image To Enlarge)
This fun, kid-friendly app brings the whole family together to create a LEGO stop motion movie on the iPhone. Simple tools and guides make it easy to shoot, edit, even score your movie with music. Add one of the customizable title cards and share it online and who knows, you may have the next summer blockbuster in your hands…literally!
LEGO DC Super Heroes Movie Maker App Features:
Add & delete frames to your movie
Choose from 5 different soundtracks
Add a color filter to the camera
Customize one of 11 different title LEGO Super Heroes cards
Save your movie to your camera roll then share with your friends
Click Images To Enlarge
I wasn't aware of this, but The LEGO Group has several other iPhone apps available through iTunes:
Life of George(Free) - The world’s first interactive game combining real LEGO bricks with apps for your iPhone/iPod Touch. Rating: 4.5 stars.
LEGO Photo (Free) - What would your child’s smile look like made of LEGO® bricks? Or your pet hamster? Capture your child’s moments of brilliance in LEGO bricks. Rating: 5 stars.
LEGO® DUPLO® Farm Friends (Free) - LEGO® DUPLO® is a new toy every day designed for boys and girls aged 2-5. Let your child explore the DUPLO farm through the Farm application – there is so much to explore from animal sounds to the big farm machines. Rating: 4 stars.
LEGO® Creationary (Free) - How quickly can you guess what’s being built from LEGO bricks? “Roll” the LEGO Dice to find out which of the 4 randomly selected categories you’ll guessing: nature, vehicles, buildings or things. The game starts building an object from that category out of LEGO bricks, and you have to guess which of the four possible answers is correct by tapping the illustration that you think matches what is being built. The faster you guess correctly, the more points you earn. The more you play, the more difficult the game becomes. Guess incorrectly and the game ends. The Creationary board game is an award-winning build-and-guess LEGO game that challenges the imagination, creativity, building and guessing skills of you, your family and friends with more than 300 bricks and accessories. With the LEGO Creationary app, you can guess what’s being built on iPad, iPhone & iTouch! Rating: 4 stars.
LEGO ® Minifigures Collector (Free) - How to play? Slide the LEGO (R) piece to get the minifigures parts rolling. Match all the 3 pieces of a LEGO Minifigure (head, torso and legs) and make it a part of your personal collection! Rating: 4+ stars.
Courtesy of an article dated April 21, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Create
According to the infographic, over 200,000 robotic dogs and 150,000 Pleo robotic dinosaurs exist, and many third-party apps have already enhanced their behaviors.
The RobotsAppStore has developed an infographic covering the market for robot applications. The infographic shows a number of apps already available at RobotsAppStore, which consumers will soon be able to purchase,” according to Elad Inbar, RobotsAppStore.com founder and CEO.
Inbar said.
“Robot-Apps, like feeding the family pet, folding your laundry and even converting robotic dogs into security devices are not science-fiction anymore. There is no doubt that robot-apps will be a strong, dynamically growing, and profitable market in the near future.”
The infographic also reveals that the RobotsAppStore is already working with several hundred robot-app developers from all around the world, according to a prepared statement from the company. And the visual tool indicates that there are many more potential developers out there, if you consider that 250,000 teenagers who built and programmed robots while competing in First LEGO League this year, as they are the developers and consumers of the future.
Considering the progress that's taken place over the past several years in hardware and software, we will probably see more and more useful, programmable robots coming to the market in the upcoming years, and a marketplace for robot-apps emerging to provide the functionality for these robots, the release noted.
COMMENTARY: I have been following robotic trends and tracking the robotics market for a couple of years now, and the production robotics sector is undergoing tremendous growth as manufacturer's seek ways to become more efficient and reduce their manufacturing costs. Likewise, the personal robotics sector, which consists of household robotic appliances and toys, is expected to experience significant growth over the next five years.
Two companies which I have covered in previous blog articles include Sifteo in a blog posts dated August 16, 2011 and March 21, 2011 and Modular Robotics in a blog post dated March 8, 2011. Both produce robotic toys or intelligent games that require specialized software programming and hardware. Sifteo sells separate software modules that allow their owners to play different games, and are now soliciting software programmers to design more game apps for them.
I have been saying to some of my VC friends that the next emerging market will be robotics, and a few VC firms have began to invest in robotic startups, but it did not occur to me until now that those robots, whether for production or personal use, require applications make them run, and as the number of robots increases, and robotics becomes mainstream, there will be an exponential need for robotic apps.
In blog post dated December 13, 2011, I pointed out the fragmented nature of the robotics market, highly specialized nature of robotics devices, and lack of a universal robotic interface and operating system. Most of the robotic app development is being done at the academic level, in colleges and universities like the MIT Media Lab, Carnegie Mellon, etc. The closest thing to a robotic operating system is Robot Operating system or ROS.
Since there no large scale universal standard operating system standards in the robotics market like there is in computers (Apple OSX, Microsoft Windows 7, Linux Open Platform, etc) and mobile devices (Google Android and Apple iOS), and until a standard wins and is universally adopted by the robotics industry, robotic app development will grow slowly, because limited programming resources have to be spread over numerous robotic devices, and at much higher costs.
The launch of RobotsAppStore.com is a great idea whose time has come, and proof positive that there is a need, although relatively small for the present time (see infographic), for an iTunes-like site where end-users can go to obtain robotic apps for their robotic devices. As far as I can tell, the Robots App Store sells mostly robotic toys like the popular NAO the Robot, Pleo the Dinosaur, Aibo the Robot Dog, Darwin the Robot, and iRobot the vacuum cleaner, to name a few. They do sell a few apps, but not many at the moment. They are presently taking new robotic app solicitations for beta-testing and consideration for future sale in the store, but are not selling any robotic apps at the present time. I am in the process of obtaining additional information about the Robots App Store for inclusion into this blog post at a later date.
Courtesy of an article dated December 22, 2011 appearing in Robotics Trends
Because you're never too young for the finer things in life.
When architect David Lamolla Kristiansen's first daughter was born, he vowed to dedicate his time to creating a special place "just for her" where "she could discover and develop without the direct intervention of her parents." The result, SmartPlayhouse, is a clutch of tres chic, modernist playhouses that are great for kids alright -- and even better for their design-obsessed parents.
Let's clarify: their rich design-obsessed parents. The playhouses shown here -- one's inspired by the famed Mikimoto building in Tokyo, by Toyo Ito, the other's a Mies van der Rohe-esque homage to mid-century modernism -- cost $3,400 and $12,000 respectively... starting! Extras like curtains, lighting, foundations, and even a door lock and key can tack on another $1,800. For that kind of money, you could buy your kid an entire neighborhood in Detroit.
COMMENTARY: SmartPlayhouse produces both indoor and outdoor playhouses. Some can be used both ways. All of them are made-to-order. These are tres chic playhouses, and are plenty expensive. Most of the models come in three different sizes: Mini, Junior and Maxi. These playhouses look like a lot of fun once outfitted with furniture, curtains, lights and fittings. I can see why young kids would go bonkers over thse playhouses. I have a feeling that after the Fast Company article and my blog post, SmartPlayhouse is gong to get a lot of website traffic and new orders. I can remember the days when you could actually buy a small house for about $12,000.
Courtesy of an article dated March 23, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design
We speak with the artist about creating a years-in-the-making mechanical masterpiece.
The blogs have been buzzing about California artist Chris Burden's toy-car megalopolis project, Metropolis II, for ages. The latest news: A collector bought the installation for "millions" of dollars, but was gracious enough to donate it to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for display over the next 10 years. (Whew!) But what does it take to design something like Metropolis II, and what does it all mean, anyway?
The first question is easy: It took Burden and his chief engineer Zak Cook four years of R&D and construction in Burden's studio to make Metropolis II. (Burden, a performance-art superstar who once had a friend shoot him in the arm in a gallery, is no stranger to following his artistic means to extreme ends.) Burden tells Co.Design that his inspiration for the project was "that we spent so much time and effort on R&D on the first one" -- a smaller toy-car city called Metropolis I that was sold to a museum in Japan, which exhibited it for six months and then mothballed it forever, like the final shot of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Whereas that version had "only" 80 toy cars whizzing around on single-lane highways, Metropolis II has 1,100 cars traveling on 18 roadways "including one six-laner," says Burden. "We wanted to expand it and make it truly overwhelming -- the noise and level of activity are both mesmerizing and anxiety provoking."
Burden doesn't have any particular interest in transportation or urban planning, he says, although he has used toys in his artworks since the 1970s. So what, then, is this hulking, cacophonous mini-city supposed to reflect? Burden says, referring to the idea of jumping into one's own car anytime and going wherever one pleases, how one pleases.
"Toys are interesting as objects -- they're the tools you use to inculcate children into adults. They're a reflection of society. It's modeling something that's on the twilight of extinction: the era of the 'free car'. Those days are numbered, but think it's a good thing. The upside is that cars can be faster and safer, and you don't have to worry about drunk drivers. Think about it: The cars in Metropolis II are going a scale speed of 230mph. That'd be great to do for real in L.A."
But while Metropolis II is an optimistic vision of the future of car culture, that's not to say that crack-ups don't happen. The exhibit, when running, requires two full-time attendants: one standing inside it monitoring flow like a panopticon, and another pacing around the 20-by-30-foot installation watching for traffic snarls. Burden says.
"I've seen spectacular pile-ups involving cars that spill off the road and derail trains. Every hour 100,000 cars circulate through the system, so you're going to get some glitches. It's not digitized."
Burden and Cook added some clever design solutions to control the traffic flow and minimize catastrophes. The subtlest, says Burden, are lane-dividing medians on the tiny roadways that taper to a point from the bottom to the top edge on straightaways, but remain fully vertical in curves. The reason: braking. When the cars enter a curve, the walls of the medians touch with rims of their wheels and the friction slows them down; when they come out of the curve, the tapered medians don't touch the wheel rims anymore, allowing the cars to pick up speed again on straightaways and keep the flow moving swiftly. When they reach the bottom, magnets in the track catch on and pull them back up a slope to the top like a roller coaster, where they are released once again to gravity's pull.
Burden also has Metropolis II's cars specially manufactured in China to his custom specifications -- unlike Metropolis I, which just used off-the-shelf Hot Wheels toys. "The original toy cars have very thin axles that wear out too fast," says Burden. Given thatMetropolis II is supposed to run three days a week for the next 10 years, how will it avoid the "wearing out" problem? Burden's no-nonsense answer: "We made a lot of cars." He says Metropolis II will go on exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art sometime this fall.
COMMENTARY: The kids would go crazy with Metropolis II, but if it were full-scale size in the Real World, would it be eco-friendly? That's a lot of gas fumes being emitted in such a confined space.
Courtesy of an article dated July 13, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design and an article dated July 13, 2011 appearing in DVICE
Recent Comments