How the BB-8 Toy Came to Be
Released on 09/03/2015
(slow spacey music)
Okay, BB-8, wake up.
We're still three months away
from Star Wars: The Force Awakens,
but you've already seen this little guy everywhere.
You haven't met BB-8, but he's charmed us
in his brief appearances in trailers
and onstage at Star Wars Celebration.
Part of that charm is mechanical.
BB-8 has a 360-degree swiveling head
that's perched on a spinning ball of a body
that makes R2-D2 look positively arthritic.
Now, you can buy him as a robot toy
and control him with your voice like you're a Jedi,
or at least a Jedi with a smartphones app.
Is that fun, BB-8?
Oh.
Last year, toy company Sphero was in the inaugural class
of the Disney Accelerator program.
On the second day of the program,
Disney tapped them to develop a BB-8 robot toy
in time for the new Star Wars film.
The company got access to top secret footage
and set out building the toy with little more
than a visual idea of what it needed to be.
Sphero had already made an app-controlled ball toy,
but turning it into a robot with a spinning head
presented some serious design challenges.
Sphero won't tell us exactly how it works,
but there's a magnet in the head and in the body
to help keep them connected.
Obviously, that requires some new software and internals
to deal with the pendulum effects
that came from the head's extra weight
in order to keep it on.
Well, mostly on.
Obviously, you don't need to be an engineer
to appreciate a beeping, spinning
ball of cute with attitude.
All you do need is $150.
Do you want to go to sleep, go back in your cradle?
No, no, no.
Okay, fine, we can do more stuff.
You want to do more stuff?
Yes.
All right, let's do it.
Starring: Peter Rubin
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