Ann-I'm not sure if you meant Nancy or Nadine when referencing the the toy comment but you'd be surprised at how high some consumers are willing to pay for a toy like this. It's not for ToysRUs. Like I said, it could be in Neiman Marcus next Christmas.
It think there are at least two more Transfromers movies in the making. There are definite co-branding possibiities or at least a cameo in the next movie.
I think Nancy's point is well taken--I would not have guessed this elegant transformer was possible without CGI, until I discovered this video. I agree with Battar--this is too pricey for a toy, but military apps immediately come to mind. I like RAWeng's idea of a transforming ATV
I'm surprised that no one has seen the potential here of a transforming vehicle.
Imagine if you would an injured person in a hazardous environment such as a mountainside where it would be difficult to access them. An ATV style vehicle could navigate the rough terrain where it could, transform itself to a climbing robot where wheels would be useless. Then when it reached the injured person transform to a triage robot tend to the immediate injuries, gather the patient and return them to where human emergency personnel can treat the patient.
Autonomous by 2030... by my calculation, if they rolled out the prototype in 2012 then in 2030 it'll finish high school. I think thats what they meant.
Not much use as a toy because of cost/reliability issues.
Can't patent it when you have a whole shelf from ToysRus plus a bunch of TV action movies standing in for prior art. (Examiners office action - "claim 1 is obvious in view of episode 17 of "power rangers" and the toy I bought my 6 year old son last Easter")
Quite ingenious and it looks like a fun toy, but agree with jmiller that I'm not seeing alot of practical application for this. Are there any for the larger study and field of robotics, Ann? What could other researchers glean from this? Of course, there is nothing wrong for making something like this for the sake of selling an interesting product and, like others said, to encourage young people to explore science, math, robotics, engineering and other technical fields. Interesting story.
I agree that projects like this encourage youngsters to become involved in science and math and I applaud the efforts of those involved in creating this.
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