Ultimate Wall-E Robot Being Brought to Life by Disney, Thinkway Toys

Disney are teaming up with Thinkway Toys to make Wall-E into a real
robot. The toy, titled Ultimate Wall-E, will retail at a stonking
$189.99 and will ship this summer. The robot will feature 10 motors for
movement, remote control, programming mode and obstacle, sound and
touch detection sensors for basic environment interactions.

The collaboration between the kid's entertainment company and Thinkway Toys and others,
including WowWee, will further result in a whole host of Disney
characters being reincarnated as a scary, robotic army. Next on the
list is Tinkerbell, and this time she really flies. The new toys will
be showcased at the upcoming Bay Area Maker Faire.

Article Link (Gizmodo)

Festo AirJelly

Article Link (Engadget)

I-Shovel: The Autonomous Snow Shoveling Robot

The I-Shovel is a new device that promises to automate this task—much like the Roomba and the Husqvarna lawnmower have done for other annoying chores. According to the project website, the I-Shovel can automatically detect snow accumulation and clear the driveway when it deems that the snowfall is significant enough to be cleared.

As for power consumption, the I-Shovel would utilize a rechargeable battery with a solar power option, which would make it eco-friendly and inexpensive to operate. Unfortunately for our friends in cold weather climates, the I-Shovel is currently in a prototype phase—but the designers are actively searching for partnerships to develop the design into a production appliance.

Article Link (Gizmodo)

What makes a design "Googley"?

A small team gathered to discuss these questions and define the Googley Design Principles:

1. Focus on people—their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today's and tomorrow's business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people's trust.
10. Add a human touch.

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Video: Disney on Virtual Worlds as Theme Parks, Interoperability, Plans, and More

Fast Company put together a great video looking at Disney's range of virtual worlds, featuring interviews with pretty much all the heavy hitters in the department. Disney recently has taken some flak from users for closing Virtual Magic Kingdom without making it easy to take that community elsewhere. As the company ramps up for more and more virtual worlds across a wide age spectrum, it's seeing a definite need to make that a connected experience with smooth transitions.

"What that means more specifically is if you've got a buddy list in one of our games, it'd be nice if that went with you to another game," said Mike Goslin, VP, Virtual Reality Studio, Walt Disney Internet Group. "You're not playing the same character in each game because the worlds are different, but some important social things go with you. We think that makes the experience more fulfilling and also allows families to play games together or sometimes an older sibling can be in one game and a younger sibling in another, but they can still communicate."

The rest of the segment ranges from topics of evolving social media experiences as kids grow up, how communities differ according to context, some very adorable actual users, passive vs. active engagement with fantasy, and more.

Frankly, Shel Israel has put together one of the best stories about virtual worlds I've seen from the mainstream media--the Disney folks come off pretty well, too.



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$184 MILLION INVESTED IN 23 VIRTUAL WORLDS-RELATED COMPANIES IN Q1 2008

Company Segment Amount Named Investors News Story
9You Virtual World/Casual Games $100,000,000 Temasek Holdings http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/03/9you-gets-100m.html
C3L3B Digital Stealth $3,000,000 (may have totalled $4m) BlueRun Ventures http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/01/c3l3b-digital-g.html
Chapatiz Youth World $530,000 Angel Investors http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/03/french-virtual.html
Dizzywood Youth World $1,000,000 Shelby Bonnie and Charles Rivers Ventures http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/02/dizzywood-gets.html
EveryScape Mirror World $7,000,000 Dace Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper Fisher New England, Draper Atlantic and LaunchPad Venture Group http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/03/interview-every.html
Fix8 Avatar Content $2,000,000 SK Telecom http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/04/fix8-announces.html
FlowPlay Youth World $3,700,000 Intel Capital and Ambient Sound Investments http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/02/casual-game-wor.html
Fluid Entertainment Youth World $3,200,000 Trinity Ventures http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/03/fluid-entertain.html
Gaia Online Youth World Undisclosed, part of a $12M round Time Warner http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/01/time-warner-inv.html
Gizmoz Avatar Creation $6,500,000 DoCoMo Capital, Inc., and ngi group, inc. http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/03/avatar-company.html
Handipoints Youth World 800,000 Charles Rivers Ventures and Angel Investors http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/03/handipoints-rec.html
IGA Worldwide Advertising Network Almost $5,000,000 Translink Capital, Presidio STX, LLC (a subsidiary of Sumitomo Corporation), and ITOCHU Corporation http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/01/iga-gets-5m-fro.html
IGG, Inc. MMORPG Provider $4,500,000 IDG Technology Venture Investment http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/01/igg-gets-45mm-i.html#more
iOpener Mixed Reality $6,000,000 Triangle Venture Capital http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/02/iopener-gets-6m.html
Kadoink Middleware $7,000,000 Sutter Hill Ventures http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/01/telephony-and-w.html
Metaversum Mirror World "a significant multi-million-Euro investment" Balderton Capital http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/04/metaversum-take.html
Numedeon Portfolio of Virtual Worlds Approximately $1,000,000 BankInter's Venture Capitol Group and Angel Investors http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/04/numedeon-closin.html
Outspark Publisher and Operator $11,000,000 Tencent Holdings, DCM, and Altos Ventures http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/01/outspark-raises.html
ROCKETON Youth World $5,800,000 D. E. Shaw Group http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/02/rocketon-draws.html
Simmersion Holdings Platform 1,900,000 Blue Cove Ventures http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/03/simmersion-hold.html
Sparkplay Media Casual MMO/World with Games $4,250,000 Redpoint Ventures and Prism Ventureworks http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/02/sparkplay-gets.html
Unisfair Virtual Events Platform $10,000,000 Norwest Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/01/unisfair-gets-1.html
YOOWALK Adult World Undisclosed CITA Gestion and Angel Investors http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2008/02/cita-gestion-in.html

TOTAL: $184,180,000

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Build-a-Bear Earnings Call: Virtual World a "Conerstone of Our Long-Term Growth Strategy"

"We know that kids are using the Internet for play in increasing numbers and at younger ages," Clark continued. "The concept of virtual world online communities that immerse children in a brand-centric environment is still very early in the adoption curve. As we create synergies between our real-world stores and our new website, we believe we will be able to attract new and returning guests to our stores. We also believe that Build-A-Bearville gives us a strong platform for growth in other entertainment oriented areas for our brand."

Clark went on to outline the history of Build-A-Bearville. After a launch in December, the site hit 1 million users in just one month. Clark now reports that in 4 months, there have been over 3 million avatars created. There are no fees outside of purchasing a toy at a physical Build-A-Bear Workshop, and the avatars unlocked with the accompanying codes have no expiration date, unlike worlds like Beanie Babies 2.0 or Webkinz.

The main advantage Clark sees for Build-A-Bear in the increasingly competitive youth market, though, is the union of physical stores and a virtual world. She says the company is still in the learning phase "with regard to what programs and features work best to create synergies between the online world and our real world stores"

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