Man makes own mini BB-8 Star Wars droid from hacked robot toy
PUBLISHED ONApril 20, 2015 8:42 AM
SINGAPORE - As soon as BB-8 - the latest droid in the Star Wars franchise - made its public debut last week and confirmed that it is not a computer-generated-imagery (CGI) creation, it has fascinated fans and left them wondering: How does it work?
And while websites like Mashable and Popular Mechanics were still speculating about how the new droid works, someone has gone on to make a mini version of the droid by hacking a Sphero - a ball-shaped robot toy.
Considering that it was reported by Forbes that Sphero - the company that produces the toy bearing the same name - "at least partly enabled" BB-8's manoeuverings, we'd say that Christian Poulsen, an Industrial Design student at Brigham Young University in Utah, United States, is on the right track.
Poulsen detailed how he made the mini BB-8 - in a day - on his website and in Makezine.com, and showed off how the mini droid rolled in a video.
sinsh@sph.com.sg