Robosapien RS Media - Advice, comparisons, news, reviews and prices.

It is a walking guard and entertainment center all in one. It can record audio and video, walk around the room filming. In guard mode, it can record who is entering the room.

The 55 cm RS Media is suited in a sleek orange and gray outer shell and is packed with advanced dynamic motion, interactive sensors, and extensive programmability. It will explore its environment with the infrared vision, foot and gauntlet sensors. Equipped with stereo sonic sensors, RS Media can hear loud sharp sounds such as a clap, will walk towards the source and acknowledge a sound directly in front by one of his many expressions, depending on his personality. RS Media's vision system allows it to track movements, detect and avoid obstacles and differentiate between colors. The long and close-range infrared vision allows it to see objects both close and far away.

This Robosapien RS Media also has all of the other functions of the V2 model: IR, voice recognition, movement recognition, bipedal walking, etc. In total it has 67 different programmable movements. The biggest change from previous Robosapien models is that fact that he has a full-color LCD display on his chest, which not only plays back video and photo files, but also shows what the robot is seeing.

It can interact with interact with Roboraptor, Robopet and Roboreptile. Equipped with volume control, all functions are handled by an easy-to-use remote control. If it falls on his back it can standup by himself without assistance. It comes with 50Mb of memory and SD card socket.

RS Media will power down 10 minutes after his last action unless something comes within his field of vision, or he is playing music.

Robosapien RSM comes with controller, USB Cable and CD RS Media software. It is powered by 6 x D and 4 x AA size batteries. In static mode it can also be powered by AC/DC adapter (Output 7.5V DC, 3.1 Amperes). If you want to use remote controller then you need 3 x AA batteries.

Customizability The RSM is fully customizable. Users can edit his system so that is can be switch between one of the four personalities: RS Media, Service Bot 3000, Space-Bot and Billy Joe Sapien. You can also create a unique personality of your own using the USB port interface and SD card slot. You can record voices, move the robots limbs and have it all stored on a SD card. All of this information can then be manipulated in the Robosapien's new software suite, which includes the BodyCon Editor, with which users can tie together motions and sounds via a timeline-based editor. Using the SD-card you will be able to have different personalities on multiple cards and swap them in and out of the robot at will.

Multimedia The MS Media offers full multimedia experience: music, photos, films, games. It features a 320 x 160 color LCD, offers a view of what the robot is seeing through its head-mounted camera. Any image or mpeg4 video (15 frames / second) can be captured and stored on the SD-Card (up to 2GB), and also played back on the robot's LCD display. The robot's included USB 1.0 port allows users to connect their favorite MP3 player. Music will play back via the built-in, 11-watt stereo speakers located in the hands and a subwoofer on the robot's back. You can also listen to your own voice that you can record using Robosapien RS Media's built in microphone or play one of the tree embedded java games.

It is also possible to attach your iPod and turn RS Media into a walking music player.

Programming There are five ways to program your RS Media:

• Puppet mode - user manipulates the robot through a sequence of desired positions.
• Main Program mode - using the remote controller trigger a controller command.
• Sound program mode - using the remote controller trigger a sound stimuli.
• Vision program mode - using the remote controller trigger a vision stimuli.
• PC Mode - the most extensive way to program RS Media. Use PC to program the robot.

And the best of all: RS runs on Java. So if you are a Java-freak, you can write your own code to teach him new tasks!