WowWee SCOTY robot media hub

WowWee managed to take over the playroom with Robosapien and his mechanical friends. Now, the company is poised to invade the home office and media room with SCOTY (Smart Companion Operating Technology), a system WowWee jointly developed with Philips to let you control your digital media via voice commands. The SCOTY bot itself is little more than a column of lights; think of the topmost light as the "head," since that's what staring at you, with a camera and facial recognition software. SCOTY can respond when you enter the room (and respond with malice if an intruder enters), and can read your email to you and help you manage your files. If the $399 SCOTY sounds more like a software agent than a robot, that's because it really is; most of the intelligence is on the PC; the column of lights is really just a showpiece for speakers, microphone and camera, all of which could probably be mounted in a little webcam-like box on top of your computer instead. But where's the fun in that?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 4th 2008 11:39AM]

I really want to purchase one...well actually it's for my boss I think this is too lazy for me...Where can I buy one for him? Please contact me by email and let me know. Thank you.

[newneonova Posted Mar 7th 2006 4:40PM]

"I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that."

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 7th 2006 4:41PM]

EXTERMINATE

[citizenlambda Posted Mar 7th 2006 5:07PM]

well, lets see, an "intelligent" cool-looking face-recognising, speaking bot with light speakers, and AI up the WAZOO, or spend 50$ less for the "super-cool" iPod Hi-Fi *cough**cough**choke* let's see, what a hard choice to make...lol

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 7th 2006 5:26PM]

I dig this on so many levels, i want my pc to take voice commands.

i wanna hack it to tell me "Good morning, Dave" in the HAL 9000 voice

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 7th 2006 6:52PM]

I spy a Westinghouse LVM-37W1 in the picture! I have it as well, awesome monitor.

[bloozie Posted Mar 7th 2006 8:51PM]

I think it's hilarious at hos SCOTY is seen four times on the left side

[Caz Posted Mar 8th 2006 7:02AM]

I remember Philips had this research project announced a few months ago.
Was it already a joint-development back then?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 16th 2006 11:07AM]

I love the concept, but the packaging and the price are way too high. Save me some $$ on the light show and let me buy a system of 6 of these networked to each other that I can put throughout my house for $400 and you've got a deal. I don't even care about the camera / face recognition. If/since you've already got most of the intelligence on the PC, Scoty should be able to recognize me by voice alone. If I want property surveillance and camera w/face recognition, then make that a separate module that wirelessly hooks into my "agent network" -- again, all helping me interface with my PC (and the internet) without having to stare into the stupid monitor 24/7!!