Ziro control glove and module. (via Ziro)
Ziro UI, it is a robot…system. It consists of basic robot building blocks and how the bocks are assembled is up to you. According to their website, you can build their parts into your own cardboard creation. They mention re-using your old Amazon boxes for this purpose. What’s is so unique about the Ziro is the interface. The Ziro UI interface is a glove. Hand motions control the movements of your creation.
Configuring the hand motions and what they do is programmed into a cell phone app. A programmable cell phone app allows you to dictate what your cardboard menace does in relation to the motions of the glove.
While the Ziro UI is available for pre-order now, their website is disappointingly short on information. Notably absent are the cost, estimated release date, what comes with their kit and what the kit or kits consists of. I would have also like to, in detail the cell-phone interface.
As a child, I would have pestered my parents without mercy for one of these. As an adult, I would definitely pick one of these up for my children.
I can’t help but roll my eyes a bit at their marketing too. In one scene on their video, a man and what is maybe his son are playing with a Ziro robot and the father has on a t-shirt with the word “family” across the chest. It’s like the scene wasn’t enough, they had to really push the notion that the Ziro is for families doing family things while being a family. Maybe it’s just a band t-shirt.
It has not escaped my notice that numerous other outlets have already reported on Ziro UI. It seems that a common theme is that this system/kit/toy is the future because it does away with the screen as a user interface. I think that these writers, in their enthusiasm to entice readers may have gotten ahead of themselves. After all, I had a remote control car back in the late 1980s. It didn’t have a screen and it was freaking awesome. Toys without screens came first. Please note that I am not knocking the Ziro, I am knocking hype and lack of perspective.
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