And Here Comes the Rovio Spy Robot

One of the coolest robots from WowWee that will show up at CES 2008 is Rovio, a mobile robotic web camera with omnidirectional movement capability which comes from its tri-wheel design.
Northstar technology is one of the base technologies on which the little robot was developed, and we are talking about a system able to create a mini-GPS for your house, with which Rovio navigates in every room with pinpoint accuracy, meaning that it knows every second where it is and where it has to go next.

It integrates a powerful web camera type with audio and streaming features allowing you to spy all your home’s corners with no need to be in the house. You can be anywhere in this world and check your house, pets, or children, by controlling Rovio via a web connection.

The robot uses Wi-Fi 802.11b/g technology and has a built-in microphone too, so you can easily build point-and-click navigation routes for the little machine, using the special software it comes with.



A cool capability of Rovio is that it can be set to turn back to its base for a full recharging anytime it needs, and you can control this with a simple touch of a web button.
The technical specs include a built-in rechargeable battery, one recharge power base, three wheels motors, three omnidirectional wheels, one camera motor, one VGA CMOS sensor type for recordings, LED lighting, one speaker for sound playback and the Wi-Fi connectivity.



To make Rovio work you need to have at least a Pentium 3 CPU with Windows XP/Vista installed on your computer, minimum 256 MB of RAM, USB port, WAP device connected to the PC like a wireless router, and a high-speed Internet connection with Internet Explorer 6 or a later version.

If you are already anxious to get your hands on the cute Rovio, you must know that you’ll have to wait until this fall for its release, and that it will retail at $299.