(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.