Digital Dream Labs Is Bringing Anki’s Vector Robot Back To Life

Pittsburgh-based EdTech startup, Digital Dream Labs has declared that it has purchased a San Francisco-based robotics startup Anki. In April, Anki started developing Vector Robot, and it got an investment of  $200 million from venture capital. However, the startup recently closed its product development as it ran out of money. According to Anki, it had already sold over 1.5 million robots such as AI-controlled racing cars named Anki Overdrive and a Cozmo as well as Vector. 

Digital Dream Labs plans to begin a Kickstarter campaign to launch two latest products from the Vector robot owner. The first named as Escape Pod that allows robots to work offline without an internet connection to the cloud server.  The next one, a development kit, enables robot owners to produce and develop new available features and functionality. With this feature, developers will be able to modify their robot through a bootloader.

Founded in 2012 by Neuroscientist  Jacob Hanchar, Digital Dream Labs is one of the leading providers of educational technologies for kids aged between 4 to 9. The company’s product Puzzlets uses toys to control video games, drones, robots, and other gadgets to encourage the STEAM learning environment. Cork the Volcano, another product, is a platform mainly planned to construct coding skills for all the kids.

Jacob Hanchar says that the important feature of this update is that the company has taken over the cloud servers and going to keep the features in the future.  This is not only just a beginning, but there would be a lot of new updates. The immediate announcement is because the customers are showing interest and loyalty toward this new project.

Anki’s Cozmo is the robotic toy that uses advanced AI which was developed by the Pixar team and Dreamworks animators. It was launched in October 2016 and it sold for a high price of $180 and $249 for a vector.