Being
able to wave your hand through the air and control a physical object --
as if by magic -- is everyone's dream. And if you say it's not yours,
then you sir or ma'am are a liar. That's why we
had to stop at the Regal Elite booth on the floor at Toy Fair.
The company was showing off the Force Flyer, an RC helicopter you pilot
with an accelerometer-equipped glove. The patented tech, called Glove
Force Technology, adds a level of physical interactivity that's more Wii
than RC. A small joystick
you hold in your palm controls thrust, while tilting and moving your
hand through the air gets the chopper to perform acrobatic maneuvers --
or plummet to the ground if you're an Engadget editor. The Regal Elite
staff seemed to have pretty good control of the Force Flyer, which gives
us hope that our difficulty in keeping the toy airborne was due more to
our lack of familiarity and not with the quality of the device. The
glove controller on hand was still a prototype (as is much of what's on
the floor at Toy Fair), hence the New Balance logo, but the actual
internals are around 80 percent complete according to a rep. The
smaller, indoor Force Flyer should be hitting the market in late April
for $49.95, followed by a larger outdoor version. Check out the gallery
below and video after the break for more.
No comments:
Post a Comment