The Hottest High-Tech Toy of 2013: Anki’s iPhone-Driven Robot Cars

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The cars moved incredibly fast, hugging the curves with g-forces that would crush any human driver tiny enough to fit inside. Yet the cars weren’t running in tracks or slots, and weren’t hemmed in by walls; nor did any of them carry the computing power needed to drive on their own.

The real secret to the toy cars’ speed and agility was inside the players’ iPhones, which acted as the cars’ offboard brains. Five hundred times per second, each car sensed its position and speed, flashed the information to a paired iPhone over a Bluetooth wireless connection, and received instructions about how to adjust the precision motors on its back wheels to keep from careening off the track—or, sometimes, to deliberately slam into an opponent.

Wer die WWDC 2013 gesehen hat, kennt Anki (Kurzvideo). Jetzt gibt es das High-Tech-Spielzeug online zu kaufen. Zwar derzeit nur in den USA, was den wahren Nerd aber wenig jucken wird. Bleibt zu hoffen, dass die Traditionsfirma Carrera eine Antwort darauf findet – die Dinger schätze ich als äußerst disruptiv ein.