Control a Robot With the Ziro Glove

LAS VEGAS—Decision-making a robot with a wave of your hand sounds like infinite wizard magic, merely Ziro is looking to make it possible for children and robotics hobbyists.

CES 2022 Bug Art Ziro is a robotics kit that uses a motion-sensing glove in conjunction with a mobile programming interface to command a series of servo motors with gestures. I saw information technology in action here at CES.

Calling Ziro a robotics kit could be seen as a slight misnomer. Since the user directly controls the servos rather than directs the automobile to motion apart, the resulting device is more accurately described as a waldo, or remote manipulator, than a robot. This of course doesn't matter when you consider you can make things move with a cybernetic glove. Whatever you phone call information technology, the result is pretty cool.

The Ziro smart glove looks like a golf glove, with the thumb, forefinger, and center finger covered. The glove reads the movements of your paw and fingers, and translates them into gestures you can configure with the Ziro mobile app. Just assign these gestures to dissimilar motors to program your robot/waldo.

Ziro Robot

Afterwards that, the motors can be attached to whatsoever cloth that's low-cal and potent enough to handle the movements y'all want it to do. The motors themselves are built from ABS plastic, and Ziro encourages the use of recyclable materials, quondam toys, and other repurposeable parts to make the kit eco-friendly.

Ziro showed off a robot pterodactyl, a faux R2-D2, and a remote control car, all built with the motors and wooden components. The connected smart gloves fabricated the pterodactyl'south wings flap, spun Artoo's head effectually, and fabricated the automobile drive forward. These aren't incredibly complex designs (again, Ziro is simply a fix of remote controlled servos), but they show off some interesting things that can be done with the kit.

This is a hobby and educational kit, and while it lacks the technical flexibility of kits similar LittleBits, Ziro displays a neat deal of potential for gadgetry. Information technology's very much a mechanical experimentation platform, something for tinkering with the easily and household objects more than than circuits and programming languages. And it could piece of work very well at that.

Availability and pricing for Ziro hasn't yet been announced, but the company plans to offer the full kits, including smart glove and servo motors, for around $200.