Misty Robotics, the creators of the Misty robot developer platform, today announced that they have started shipping Misty II robots to its crowdfunding backers. Misty has been purpose-built as a developer’s platform, with the tools and docs developers need to easily build skills (robot applications) that bring her to life. Misty II is shipping with software version 1.0.3 beta, and Misty’s SDK will be publicly available to all developers enabling skill building using JavaScript.
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The Misty II Robot Begins Shipping to Crowdfunding Backers (Photo: Business Wire)
“Misty is the robotics platform that I’ve wanted since I started building robots 24 years ago, and the best part is that she’s accessible to anyone who knows how to write a few lines of code,” said Ian Bernstein, founder and head of product at Misty Robotics. “Delivering Misty II to our crowdfunding backers is a major milestone for us, and our backers are investors in the vision of personal robots becoming a reality in our lives. The rest of the team and I are very excited to see how the hundreds of developers who backed us will bring Misty to life.”
Over the past few months, developers with early access to Misty have already begun to leverage her powerful hardware and software capabilities, such as robust locomotion, facial recognition, and programmable personality to build skills that enable Misty to take on jobs or assignments. Early customers are building skills for inventory data collection, home property inspection, environmental monitoring, spatial data collection, eldercare, autism therapy, and personal engagement.
“There is absolute ease cold starting into development with Misty,” said Michael Rodriguez, professional web developer. “With the pre-built Command Center and Skill Runner, along with a great SDK interface, API explorer, and strong docs, it was easy to just jump in and go. What a surprise that was…I was certainly expecting much more leg work to get up and running.”
Misty is packed with sophisticated technology enabling capabilities, which developers can leverage into the skills they build. At rollout, some capabilities will be complete while others will be partially ready to go with software updates rolling out in the coming weeks. The following capabilities will be available to backers upon ship:
- Easily programmable – Her tools and documentation make it easy to bring your ideas to life on Misty.
- Facial detection and recognition – She knows when there is a human in her presence and can learn who that person is.
- Expansive field of view – She can view wide areas from a stationary position.
- Mobile sound localization – She is able to identify the direction of and turn towards her human upon receiving directions after her activation.
- Image and graphic display – She can share images and graphics on her face/screen.
- Audio playback – She can play back audio files as a part of a skill.
- Voice integration – She has the ability to integrate with NLP services.
- Capacitive touch – She can respond to human touch on her head and chin.
- Obstacle avoidance – She knows when there is something in her path, from the cat to a flight of stairs.
- Photo capture – 4k – She can snap and share photos one at a time or sequentially.
- Hardware extensibility – You can extend her functionality via third party components, e.g. Arduino, Raspberry Pi hardware, and sensors.
- Audio recording – She can record audio for use in a skill or saving offline.
- Wake word – She can be activated via “Hey, Misty”, enabling follow-on directions.
- Robust Locomotion – She cruises around on her own or wherever you direct her to go.
- Raw sensor access.
- Programmable personality – She ships with 40+ eyes and 80+ sounds; developers can also create their own eyes and sounds. This combined with movement leads to an engaging personality you control.
- Skill sharing – Developers can share the skills they build with others via Misty community forum and GitHub.
Misty is software on treads and her capabilities will benefit from continuous delivery of software updates. The partially complete capabilities include spatial awareness, video capture with a single 10-second video, and 3D mapping/SLAM integration.
The rollout to the over 500 crowdfunding backers will be completed over the coming weeks. New customers can pre-order the Misty II robot for $2399 (a 25% discount off of MSRP) before her official market launch later this year.
To learn more about the Misty II robot please visit: www.mistyrobotics.com.
About Misty Robotics:
Misty Robotics is the company behind Misty, a robot platform purpose-built for developers. Misty is focused on enabling developers to build apps for its robots that offer value and utility for businesses and at home. Misty Robotics is a spin-out of connected toy company, Sphero. Based in Boulder, Colorado, the company is financially backed by Venrock, Foundry Group and others.
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