App gives new joy to Sphero
About a year ago NBT talked about some fun RC toys that you can use with your tablet. One of those toys mentioned is called Sphero. It’s a little ball that you use your tablet or phone to control where it moves. It wasn’t actually available on the market until the end of 2011 however. Well as the story goes a member of the HTC team was in the audience at last fall’s Big Android BBQ where Sphero was being shown off. After the BBQ he was still thinking about the demonstration and had an idea for a new app to control Sphero.
The idea he had was about using the HTC Scribe’s pen to control exactly where the Sphero would move. If you drew a heart, it would move in a heart pattern, draw your name and it would spell it out for you on the ground. It was a pretty cool idea, and one that HTC decided it wanted to see through. It got in contact with Orbotix, the maker of Sphero, and sent a few Scribes there way to begin development of the app.
What came out of the development at Orbotix is an app called Scribe N’ Drive. It does exactly what they set out to make it do, control the Sphero with the Scribe’s pen. It does more than just allowing you to follow the design you’ve drawn on your tablet. You can change the colors of the Sphero using the integrated color wheel. Want to draw a new design? Just give your tablet a shake and clear your canvas. Head on over to the Play store and check out the app if you happen to have a Sphero. If you don’t have one, the Sphero looks to be a fun little toy to play with.
[Sphero|HTC Blog|Scribe ‘N Drive]
