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Foundry Group Invests in Orbotix - iPhone Based Toys

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Re: Foundry Group Invests in Orbotix - iPhone Based Toys

#3

Post by replicatorblog »

atomical wrote: post #2

While I like the initial concept perhaps the founders could tell us something about the vision for the company. Will the products be limited to simple objects?

Its hard to tell if they see the future as being a toy/game company or if this toy/game is a proof of concept for a broader API between the physical and digital worlds. My hunch is the latter, as it better fits in with Foundry's "Glue" theme and this doesn't seem like a very compelling toy.

Re: Foundry Group Invests in Orbotix - iPhone Based Toys

#4

Post by atomical »

replicatorblog wrote: post #3
atomical wrote: post #2

While I like the initial concept perhaps the founders could tell us something about the vision for the company. Will the products be limited to simple objects?

Its hard to tell if they see the future as being a toy/game company or if this toy/game is a proof of concept for a broader API between the physical and digital worlds. My hunch is the latter, as it better fits in with Foundry's "Glue" theme and this doesn't seem like a very compelling toy.

One of Foundry's current investments is a toy company.

http://www.smithandtinker.com/

It's a bit of both? The product and the glue?

Re: Foundry Group Invests in Orbotix - iPhone Based Toys

#5

Post by replicatorblog »

atomical wrote: post #4
replicatorblog wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its hard to tell if they see the future as being a toy/game company or if this toy/game is a proof of concept for a broader API between the physical and digital worlds. My hunch is the latter, as it better fits in with Foundry's "Glue" theme and this doesn't seem like a very compelling toy.

One of Foundry's current investments is a toy company. http://www.smithandtinker.com/ It's a bit of both? The product and the glue?

They also invested in a company called Sifteo that is a Toy/Web combo. They are one of the leading investors in the kid tech market it seems.

Smith & Tinker actually pivoted away from toys and are now focusing on micro-transaction based web games.

Re: Foundry Group Invests in Orbotix - iPhone Based Toys

#7

Post by orbotixian »

atomical wrote: post #2

While I like the initial concept perhaps the founders could tell us something about the vision for the company. Will the products be limited to simple objects?

We are putting an enormous amount of time into the underlying technology that goes into the ball to make it mobile device controlled. For instance, we have built our API on two levels. A low-level API which gives us a set of basic functions such as toggling a pin on the actual microcontroller and a high-level API for the ball which abstracts these calls to something any app developer can easily use with absolutely no hardware experience. The high-level ball API uses the low-level API and allows a developer to simply say, for example, moveBall(direction, speed). In essence we have a platform for connecting the app world with the real world and this allows us to place our technology into any type of device from simple to extremely complex very quickly. The ball is our first product and it is a good way to prove the technology in a fun way.
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