Sony Rolly

Sony Rolly

Sony are releasing (in Japan) the Rolly, an egg shaped MP3 player with 1gb flash memory, bluetooth streaming, built in 20mm active speakers and dancing modes. At first I thought this was an extreme gimmick, but after seeing more I find some of the interactions really interesting.

This video shows Rolly dancing to a particular (cheesy) song. This kind of behaviour will create a playful and emotional attachment between the user and the product, not something you see in portable music players at the moment.

The motion editor (shown below) is a great touch. The sound waveform is shown along a timeline, with each function of the rolly controllable along the timeline with keyframes that we are used to in so many products like Flash or video editing. Functions like open & close arms, rotate arms around the shoulder, move each wheel forwards or backwards and LED colours. It also has a 3D preview, so you can see the movement before uploading to the physical device. Users will be able to share their choreographed moves online for other Rolly users.

This video goes into a lot more depth, showing some of the interactions of using the device.

  • Rolly knows which way up it is being held, so will close the bottom speaker. Rotate one wheel to change songs and the other for volume (shown here).
  • When on a flat surface, roll forwards to go to next song, or backwards for previous. Rotate on the spot to change volume. Once you change volume by rotating it, it automatically rotates back to face you on its own, genius.
  • Shake the Rolly to shuffle songs (watch video)

Its really great to see these sensors being used inside a commercial product in a considered and intelligent way, giving playful behaviors to a normally lifeless product.

Sony Rolly

Posted on September 13th 2007 under Robot