Sphero's Force Band will let you control BB-8 with gestures

Sphero's smartphone-controlled BB-8 droid (from the new Star Wars film, of course) is one of the cooler toys we've seen. The company's looking to add an extra level of interactivity to the droid by means of a wristband that'll let you roll it around with gestures. The so-called Force Band will be sold separately so that existing BB-8 owners can add gesture controls to their droid when it comes out in the fall of this year.

The quick demo we got at CES didn't really show the full potential of the Force Band — there was a bit too much interference from the myriad wireless signals floating through the air. But BB-8 follows the motion of your hand so you can steer him around and use forward and backward gestures with your hands to make him start and stop. You'll need to be careful when piloting him, though, as its exceedingly easy to accidentally move your hands in a way BB-8 doesn't like and knock him right off course.

Regardless, it seems like a fun way to add a new level of control to the droid; we're guessing lots of kids will get a kick out of rolling BB-8 around using the Force. We'd be lying if we said it didn't look like fun — it's just a bit more impractical when compared to the standards smartphone controls.