Michal Ždanský I remember like it was yesterday when I found the remote control car I wanted under the Christmas tree. Those hours spent on the sidewalks and parks with the controller in hand, until finally even the spare batteries died and it was time to go home to the charger. Nowadays, we can remotely control practically everything, from toy cars to quadcopters to flying insects. What's more, we can control them with a mobile phone. Among this group of toys we also find Sphero, a robotic ball from Orbotix.
Like most other remote-controlled devices, the Sphero communicates with your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, which limits the range to about 15 meters. But can Sphero make its way among the flood of similar toys to the hearts of playful users?
Video review
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Rolled out package contents
The Sphero itself is a ball made of hardened polycarbonate roughly the size of a bocce ball or baseball. When you hold it in your hand, you can immediately tell that it is not balanced. It is thanks to the shifted center of gravity and the rotor inside that the movement is created. The Sphero is literally stuffed with electronics; it contains various sensors, such as a gyroscope and a compass, but also a system of LEDs. They can illuminate the ball through the semi-transparent shell with thousands of different colors that you control using the app. The colors also serve as an indication – if the Sphero starts flashing blue before pairing, it means that it is ready for pairing, while a red flashing light indicates that it needs to be recharged.
The ball is waterproof, so there is no connector on its surface. Charging is therefore solved using magnetic induction. In a neat box, together with the ball, you will also find a stylish stand with an adapter including extensions for different types of sockets. Charging takes around three hours for one hour of fun. The endurance is not bad, considering what the battery has to power in addition to the rotor, on the other hand, the ball is still 30-60 minutes away from perfection due to the logical absence of a replaceable battery.
Since the Shero has no buttons, all interaction is through movement. The ball turns itself off after a long period of inactivity and reactivates with a shake. Pairing is as simple as any other device. As soon as the ball starts to glow blue after activation, it will appear among the available Bluetooth devices in the iOS device settings and will be paired with it within a few seconds. After starting the control application, Sphero still needs to be calibrated so that the glowing blue dot points towards you and the application interprets the direction of movement correctly.
You can control the ball in two ways, either through a virtual router or by tilting your phone or tablet. Especially in the case of a smartphone, I recommend using the second option, which is not more accurate, but much more fun. The SPhero application will also offer the option to film the ball while controlling it, although the final video is not as high quality as if you took it through the built-in Camera application.
Last but not least, the color of the lighting can be changed in the application. The system of LEDs really allows you to choose any shade of color, so you are not limited only by the common colors of standard LEDs. Finally, you'll also find some macros here, when the Sphero starts driving in a continuous circle or turns into a color show.
App for Sphero
However, control software is not the only thing you can find in the App Store for Sphero. The authors already released an API for third-party developers at the time of release, so practically every application can integrate ball control or use its sensors and LEDs. There are currently a little over 20 applications in the App Store, which, given the year and a half that Sphero has been on the market, is not that many. Among them you will find rather smaller games, but also some interesting games. Among them, for example:
Draw & Drive
The application is used to control the ball more precisely through drawing. You can make the ball go straight, then turn green and turn hard to the right. Draw & Drive it can remember even a more complicated route without any problems. The interpretation of the drawn route is quite accurate, although it is not quite perfect for driving a pre-planned route with obstacles.
Sphero Golf
To play this game, you will need a cup or hole to represent the golf hole. Sphero Golf it's a bit like the first golf apps on the iPhone, where you simulated your swing using a gyroscope. This application works on the same principle, however, you do not see the movement of the ball on the display, but with your own eyes. You can even choose different club types that affect trajectory and launch speed. While the idea is interesting, the accuracy of the movement is absolutely appalling and you'll have to put in a lot of effort to even brush against the cup you're preparing, let alone hit it. This destroys all the fun.
Sphero Chromo
This game uses the ball's built-in gyroscope. By tilting it in a specific direction, you have to choose the given color in the fastest possible time. In a short time it will begin to be Chromo challenge, especially with the shortening interval until you have to hit the right color. However, after a few tens of minutes of playing, you will start to feel a slight pain in your wrist, so I recommend playing this game with sensitivity. However, this is an interesting use of the Sphera as a controller.
Shero Exile
Another game that implemented Shero as a game controller. With the ball, you control the movement and shooting of the spaceship and shoot down enemy spaceships or avoid planted mines. You gradually fight your way through given levels with stronger enemies, the game also has nice graphics and a soundtrack. Exile can be controlled without the Sphere by tilting the iPhone or iPad, which is more accurate than tilting the sphere after all.
Zombie Rollers
The implementation of Sher can also be found in one of the games from the publisher Chillingo. Zombie Rollers is one of the endless arcade type Minigore, where your character kills zombies using a zorbing ball. Here, in addition to the virtual router and tilting the device, you can also control it with the Sphere. The game contains several different environments and you can play it for long hours chasing the best score.
there is quite a lot to win with Sphere. You can build an obstacle course, use it as a dog toy, surprise your friends with it as a joke, or simply take the ball to the park to show off to passers-by. While on the flat surface of the parquet floor in the apartment, the Sphero moved at a speed of about a meter per second, according to the manufacturer, on the bumpy surface of outdoor paths, you will find that the ball lacks a bit of pace. On a straight asphalt road, it still kind of scurries behind you, but it hardly moves on the grass, which is not surprising considering the relatively small weight of the Sphera (168 grams).
Even for a smaller dog, Sphero will not present much of a challenge in a game of chase, the dog will catch up after two steps and the ball will end up mercilessly in its mouth. Fortunately, its hard shell can easily withstand its bite. However, such a cat, for example, could quite win with the ball due to its playful nature.
As already mentioned, the ball is waterproof and can even float in water. Since it can only stir the water with a spinning motion, it does not develop much speed. The only option is to add fins to the ball, as advised by one of the illustrated cards in the box. Although the Sphero isn't built for swimming across a pond, crossing deeper puddles can have something of an obstacle course.
Sphero is probably intended mainly for larger surfaces. In the confined space of a home environment, you'll probably bump into furniture a lot, to which the ball, or rather its app, will respond with sound effects, however, with most jolts, the Sphero will lose track of where you are and you'll need to recalibrate the ball. At least it doesn't take long, just a few seconds. Likewise, the device will need to be recalibrated after each automatic shutdown, i.e. after about five minutes of inactivity.
Evaluation
Sphero is definitely not like other remote-controlled toys, but it also shares with them a classic ailment, namely that they stop entertaining you after a few hours. Not that the ball does not offer any added value, on the contrary – available applications and wider possibilities of use, such as an animal toy or a good joke in the form of a self-rolling orange, will definitely extend the life of the device a little, at least until you try everything once.
In particular, the available APIs represent a decent potential for Sphero, but the question is what else can be invented beyond the currently available games. Racing with friends can be fun, but you're unlikely to run into someone else in your circle of friends who's also invested in a robot ball. If you are a fan of similar devices or have small children, you may find a use for the Sphero, but otherwise, at a price of CZK 3490, it will be a relatively expensive dust collector.
You can purchase the robotic ball on the website Sphero.cz.
[one_half last="no"]
advantages:
[Checklist]
- Inductive charging
- Third-party applications
- A unique concept
- Lighting
[/checklist][/one_half]
[one_half last="yes"]
Disadvantages:
[bad list]
- Price
- Average durability
- He gets tired of it in time
[/badlist][/one_half]
If the price was about 50%, they would earn more than now.
If you look at how much the manufacturer offers it for, you wouldn't write your comment.
Price dropped!!! About 3 CZK! And I think it will go down!
I noticed almost the same iphone background as mine :-)
Thanks for the review.