EMO by Living.AI vs Anki’s Vector

EMO by Living.Ai is a small biped robot . Heavily inspired to the open-source OTTODIY and to the Anki’s Vector robot it seem that has be born directly from their conjunction.

EMO comes in metal black colour with green eyes, plastic headphone and a wireless charger skateboard that give a very stylish design and add an innovative charging functionality.

From the video  : EMO can track your face, dance, walk around  and respond to your commands. The robot is has over 1000 face animations and sensors to avoid falling. It has Alexa assistant integration and more.

Funding Campaign

Living.AI is now collecting funds on KickStarter, but this is not their first campaign : The company had a previous one in the similar crowdfunding platform Indiegogo .

The previous campaign was closed after a DigitalDreamLabs’s Cease & Desist letter for some intellectual property theft. We don’t know what happened to that campaign funding , or if the product offered in KickStarter is now copyright free. We are open to receive explanations by Living.AI to update this article.

The usage of OpenSource components taken from project like BOB or OTTO , ZOWI and TITO, if present, the licence require that the product derivate “remixed” should be mentioned and release under Creative Common Licence to the public ( Attribution ShareAlike 3.0) .

Update : A lawsuit between DDL & Living.AI is in progress ( click to view)

Update 02-12-2020 : the Living.AI KickStarter “paused”

“All your base are belong to us“

All brands protect their intellectual property. This is a big and aggressive business:  big names like Nintendo stand tall in this game with a series of verdict that took down websites, hobbyist projects and ever sent people to jail.

However the copyright infringements battle could become a double edge sword, DDL’s Puzzlets could resemble some products by LEGO, Vector itself has various “resemblance” to various product of Clementoni ( thread and wheels),  and TOMY’s OMNIBOTs , OpenSource Smars Project ( wheels ) .. etc

Who invented the wheel?

At the end its us, makers and consumers, who are paying the price of the battle, with high price products and not to have access to several new robots.