Reach Robotics, an augmented reality gaming company, says its flagship product, MekaMon, “the world’s first real-life gaming robot,” is now available on Apple.com and MekaMon.com for $299.95, as well as in Apple stores throughout the U.S. and UK at stores on Nov. 16.
By incorporating augmented reality into a robot, Reach Robotics has created a new branch of gaming – one that totally immerses the player by putting their four-legged robots into battle in both the physical and virtual worlds with both iOS and Android compatibility, says Reach Robotics CEO Silas Adekunle.
“MekaMon straddles both the real and virtual worlds while taking the gaming experience beyond a player’s screen and turning their sitting room into a limitless robotic battle zone,” he says. “MekaMon represents a quantum leap forward in the leveraging of augmented reality. Players can whip out their smartphone to battle their multi-functional, connected battlebots in the physical and virtual worlds at the same time.”
MekaMon can be enjoyed on updated iOS and Android devices and uses the phone’s camera and infrared sensors for precision game-play. Each robot weighs approximately 2.2 pounds, measures 11.8 x 11.8 x 5.9 inches, and has a removable, rechargeable battery for at least one hour of non-stop play-time.
Powered by the smartphone app, MekaMon robots connect to each other via infrared signals and players’ phones connect to each other over Bluetooth, allowing friends to battle against each other as well as offering arcade-style and co-operative game-play. Gamers choose whether to play in the real world or augmented reality – once battles starts, the robot is free to move and use any object in the room (e.g. tables, chairs, other toys, etc.) to block and/or hide from attackers!
A MekaMon robot can be customized to suit a user’s individual playing style, adding weapons or shields to create more aggressive, defensive and technical capabilities. Additionally, MekaMon will feature full compatibility with Apple’s Swift Playgrounds coding app, allowing users to control their robot with real Swift code.
With Swift Playgrounds, users can learn and implement fundamental coding concepts to control Mekamon’s startup, shutdown and movement capabilities, custom reactionary animations and more. This not only gives users the chance to learn how to put together more complex coding commands but allows each person to define completely unique behaviors in their MekaMon.
