Super fun Force Band gives you Jedi-like control of BB-8

Obi Wan is long gone, but his voice comes to me nonetheless, reminding me to be patient and asking me to… “Choose my activity?”

The voice, an uncanny blend of Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor, is actually emanating from Sphero’s new Force Band, a device that lets you use the force…er…motion and gestures to control the already popular BB-8 by Sphero, a toy robot modeled on Star Wars: The Force Awaken’s scene-stealing BB-8 droid.

When I first saw the Force Band nine months ago at CES 2015, it was a somewhat unimpressive looking white plastic wearable with some pretty awesome capabilities. Inside the Force Band is the same inertial measurement unit (IMU), essentially an accelerometer and gyroscope, Sphero built into its little BB-8 robot. As a result, anyone wearing the Force Band prototype could control BB-8’s speed and direction using gestures. Read more...