Apple Stores in the United States and United Kingdom
have begun the sale of gaming robots, MekaMons, built by a Nigerian-British,
Silas Adekunle.
Adekunle’s company, Reach Robotics struck the deal with Apple recently.
The product with a price tag of $299.95 went on sale from 16 November in the shops and online. The robots can be operated with an iPhone and other smartphones.
Adekunle’s company, Reach Robotics struck the deal with Apple recently.
The product with a price tag of $299.95 went on sale from 16 November in the shops and online. The robots can be operated with an iPhone and other smartphones.
Reach Robotics, an augmented reality gaming company creates robots
for both fun and STEM education.
Adekunle, who was born in Nigeria moved to the UK
when he was 11 years old. He is an engineer who graduated with First Class
Honours from the University of the West of England in Bristol, with a Bachelor
of Science in robotics technology. He previously worked at GE Aviation and
Infineon. “We’ve created an entirely new video gaming platform,” said Adekunle
in a press release, published by Black Enterprise.
“MekaMon straddles both the real and virtual worlds
while taking the gaming experience beyond a player’s screen and turning their
sitting room into a limitless robotic battle zone. MekaMon represents a quantum
leap forward in the leveraging of augmented reality.
Players can whip out their iPhone to battle their
multi-functional, connected battlebots in the physical and virtual worlds at
the same time.” MekaMons are four-legged robots that players can control via a
smartphone using a companion app for augemented reality game-play.
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Multiple players can have their MekaMons battle each
another. Each robot weighs a little over two pounds with dimensions of 11.8 by
11.8 by 5.9 inches. MekaMons can connect to each other via infrared signals and
Bluetooth, allowing for co-op gaming.
The robots are powered by a rechargeable battery
that provides up to an hour of game-play.
They are compatible with the iPhone,
using the smartphone’s camera and infrared tracking capability for precise
navigation. Adekunle’s company, founded in 2013 is based at the Bristol
Robotics Laboratory (BRL) Technology Incubator.
His colleagues
include Chris Beck who had been working as a roboticist in the BRL. The
company, according to southwestbusiness.co.uk has experienced fast growth in
the past few months and the firm is moving out of its offices at Future Space
in Bristol.
The company, which has taken space for its 29
members of staff at Bristol Business Park, has secured $9.5m (£7.1m) of
investment funding from organisations which, says Adekunle, could “see the
potential for what we were developing”.
Adekunle said: “When I was a student at UWE Bristol
I spent some time going into schools to help inspire young people and it struck
me that there was a huge untapped market for a consumer robot with a
difference.
“We used to
go in and explain simple robotics to try to inspire the young roboticists and
engineers of the future and this experience set me off thinking about designing
gaming robots.”
Reach Robotics is anticipating fast future growth
and is looking to target the UK and US market in the lead up to Christmas.
Adekunle
added: “This is an exciting time for our company as now after years of
development work we are finally able to bring Mekamon to customers across the
UK and US and with plans to go global. “UWE Bristol has given us an amazing
start and we are so grateful for their support.”
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