WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled Robotic WebCam
by WowWee
Product Summary
Manufacturer: WowWeeBrand: Wow Wee
Release Date: 2008-10-15
Model: Rovio
Product features:
- Wi-Fi enabled robotic webcam/ led illumination/1 x speaker/1 x built in microphone
- Detects your computer settings for you and guides you though the process
- Interactive audio and video streams from ROVIO to the PC
- Control from web accessible devices
- With stored location points ROVIO can navigate itself around the home
Toys and Games Reviews of WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled Robotic WebCam
Customer Review: Amazing device, but needs improvement
Summary: 4 Stars
I was a little scared about getting Rovio after reading so many bad reviews. But I'm glad I did. It does what it promises to do and it works. This web-cam was a great help for me when I went on vacation and left my cat home alone. I could check on her food and water, and talk to her. I was able to operate it from Hawaii by using my Blackberry as a modem to get internet connection to Laptop.
My review is for the used Rovio unit I bought here and then upgraded to firmeware v5.0.
So let me address some negative things about Rovio that were mentioned here by other reviewers.
1. WiFi WORKS fine! It's not a rocket science to set this up, and with latest firmware Rovio supports WPA encryption. It took me about 10 minutes to get it running after I updated firmware.
2. Some people report docking issues. I really don't know what they are talking about, maybe it's the older firmware version, but docking JUST ALWAYS WORKS. You do have to be in the same room, within signal reach and Rovio must have clear view of the ceiling where IR beam is projected. My Rovio will loose docking signal when it got to the other end of the living room or into the kitchen. I didn't expect miracles here, all you have to do is drive it until it get's the signal. Then it drives itself. It gets closer to the docking station and from there on it uses it's GPS beacon system. Never missed the cradle.
3. Light sensitivity. Yes this is a MAJOR issue with Rovio. My room is in the shade during daylight and it appears as pitch black to Rovio. Built in light doesn't help much. But as long as I move it closer the window or away from the furniture that blocks the light, I can operate it normally. Once you get enough light, image quality is very good. I've read some people attached battery powered motion activated LED arrays to the Rovio to drive it in the dark.
4. Battery life. It's not super long (about 1.5 hours), but I think it's sufficient to check on things.
5. Audio only works with IE. Yes this is true, you will need to use ActiveX controls, so with Firefox and other browsers you won't be able to talk and listen. It doesn't bother me much as I'm a Windows user. Video also appears brighter than using IE.
6. Connecting from internet. Setting up access from outside is no different from forwarding ports to other applications like FTP or WebServer. So if you know what you are doing you can easily setup your router to access Rovio from the internet. There's a small catch tho. IE uses different port for Video. Took me some time to figure out why video wasn't working from IE while it was just fine on Firefox. So if your Rovio is on port 88, you need to open next port as well (89).
7. Crashes. I don't know if anyone mentioned it but my Rovio did crashed a few times in the begining. Every time it happened when I was changing some internal settings (like ports) and once when I rebooted my wireless router. But if I don't touch anything, it works :)
Other good/bad things that I observed during using Rovio for about a month:
1. It drives pretty well on almost any surface. I've driven it on the hardwood floors, over high carpet, and it had no problem going over thresholds from one room to another. It just never got stuck.
2. Video quality is very good if you have plenty of light.
3. There's some latency when operating over internet, but if it gets unresponsive lower video quality in the settings.
4. Audio quality is not very good, it's mike picks up it's own speaker (you hear yourself) so you get lots of feedback. You need to play with mic/speaker sliders to get rid of it.
5. Highest head position is virtually useless as it looks directly up.
6. I could not get e-mail feature to work. Not sure why, SMTP settings are correct.
7. Decorating LED lights on the body, are useless and annoying in the dark. There are hacks to turn them off, but I had no luck with it so far.
8. Rovio is pretty strong, it can move empty boxes that are on the way.
9. Things appear closer than they are on video.
10. Rovio has laser obstacle detection which disabled by default. It works pretty well, especially when Rovio needs to park itself. It just dances around furniture almost never touching it! Be sure to enable it, doesn't look like it affects battery life at all...
Overall I'm very happy and impressed by Rovio. There's great room for improvement. Camera needs get better light sensitivity. Head height adjustment needs to have intermediate position between being up and looking at the ceiling. But let's face it, there's nothing else (especially in this price range) out there that's better than Rovio.
Description of WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled Robotic WebCam
WowWee Rovio Wi-Fi Enabled Robotic WebCam Access your home from anywhere in the world with the Rovio Robotic WebCam! Rovio detects your computer settings for you and guides you though the process. Let Rovio roam freely and see its point of view directly on your PC using its Wi-Fi remote controlled webcam. Interactive audio and video will stream from Rovio directly to your PC. See and hear exactly what Rovio sees and hears, on your screen, anywhere in the world. Store location points so that Rovio can navigate itself around the home, without you having to control each step. Rovio will always have power, even when you are not there to recharge it. At the touch of a button you can send Rovio back to the recharge base using its self-docking capabilities, even if you are not at home! Specifications WiFi connectivity/ 802.11g/ also works with 802.11b devices Rechargable batteries included One recharge station LED illumination 3x wheel motors 3x omni-directional wheels 1x camera motor 1x VGA CMOS sensor 1x speaker 1x built-in microphone System Requirements PC compatible computer with a minimum Pentium 3 processor or equivalent Windows XP or Windows Vista operating systems 256MB of RAM USB Wireless Access Point device connected to PC High speed internet connection Internet Explorer 6 or higher required for two way audio featureToys and Games
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