Anki Vector

MEET VECTOR, COZMO’S BIGGER AND BRAINIER BROTHER.

VECTOR IS ANKI’S latest robot release and it’s aiming at a different market from its last, Cozmo.

It’s certainly a device that will be liked and used by kids, but the aim is for it to be used by the whole family. Actually, it’s aim is really to be part of the family.

The main way Anki is hoping to achieve this is by making Vector autonomous. Where Cozmo was tethered to an app, that was probably only on one person’s device, Vector hooks straight into your Wi-Fi connection and is largely app free.

This automatically means that it will be used by more people in the home, so to make sure all of these people don’t get bored it can do a lot more things.

While making it app - and phone – free (apart from setup) sounds like an easy fix, there’s been a lot of graft behind the scenes for this to happen.

Anki has had to shift the computational power that was mostly done through the app on to the robot itself, swapping out a tiny processor for something much bigger. On board is a Qualcomm Snapdragon, Quad Core 1.2GHz chip, offering up the same power as some smartphones and tablets.

Setting up Anki Vector was an easy process but one that took a few goes to get right. As mentioned, you don’t really need to use the app that much once Vector is up and running. But setup has to take place through the application.

Download this, then there is a step by step process to get it hooked up to your home network. First you have to make sure you are on a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network, the the app has to recognize the robot. You do this by typing in a code. It’s a little fiddly but when it works, Vector ‘wakes up’ and is ready to go.

The Qualcomm processor inside is significant. This extra power boosts means that Vector can do a lot of things and while Anki is keen not to brand it a virtual assistant, the things it can – and eventually will - do are very much what you would expect from the likes of Google Assistant and Alexa. In fact, it is about to get Alexa integration which will unlock the potential of this device, that perhaps we didn’t quite see when reviewing it.

Without this feature, there is still a lot of fun to be had. For instance, the Ask Vector feature means that it can give you answers to questions you may have.

Having Vector around for a number of weeks in our house certainly extended the appeal of the robot. At first, we enjoyed playing with it and asking it questions but then things shifted after the first week.

It was then a thing that we enjoyed just being in our house. It would come and interact and say “hi”, then we’d play a few games then it would go back to doing its own thing.

It’s clear that there is more to come and we can’t wait to see what that will be. We’ll certainly revisit Vector when the Alexa integration is live but for now Vector is a fun, robot companion with a mighty big brain.

ANKI VECTOR

$359 www.anki.com

CRITICAL SPECS

Qualcomm 200 Platform; HD camera with 120 Ultra Wide FOV; Beamforming Four-Microphone Array; Infrared Laser Scanner; 6-Axis IMU; High-Res Color IPS Display; WiFi connection