Apple Stores in the United States and United Kingdom have begun the
sale of gaming robots, MekaMons, built by a Nigerian-British, Silas
Adekunle.
Adekunle’s company, Reach Robotics struck the deal with Apple recently.
The product with a price tag of $299.95 went on sale from 16
November in the shops and online. The robots can be operated with an
iPhone and other smartphones.
Reach Robotics, an augmented reality gaming company creates robots for both fun and STEM education.
Adekunle, who was born in Nigeria moved to the UK when he was 11 years old.
He is an engineer who graduated with First Class Honours from the
University of the West of England in Bristol, with a Bachelor of Science
in robotics technology. He previously worked at GE Aviation and
Infineon.
“We’ve created an entirely new video gaming platform,” said Adekunle in a press release, published by Black Enterprise.
“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. MekaMon represents a
quantum leap forward in the leveraging of augmented reality. Players can
whip out their iPhone to battle their multi-functional, connected
battlebots in the physical and virtual worlds at the same time.”
MekaMons are four-legged robots that players can control via a smartphone using a companion app for augemented reality gameplay.
Multiple players can have their MekaMons battle each another. Each
robot weighs a little over two pounds with dimensions of 11.8 by 11.8 by
5.9 inches.
MekaMons can connect to each other via infrared signals and Bluetooth, allowing for co-op gaming.
The robots are powered by a rechargeable battery that provides up
to an hour of gameplay. They are compatible with the iPhone, using the
smartphone’s camera and infrared tracking capability for precise
navigation.
Adekunle’s company, founded in 2013 is based at the Bristol
Robotics Laboratory (BRL) Technology Incubator. His colleagues include
Chris Beck who had been working as a roboticist in the BRL.
The company, according to southwestbusiness.co.uk has experienced
fast growth in the past few months and the firm is moving out of its
offices at Future Space in Bristol.
The company, which has taken space for its 29 members of staff at
Bristol Business Park, has secured $9.5m (£7.1m) of investment funding
from organisations which, says Adekunle, could “see the potential for what we were developing”.
Adekunle said: “When I was a student at UWE Bristol I spent
some time going into schools to help inspire young people and it struck
me that there was a huge untapped market for a consumer robot with a
difference.
“We used to go in and explain simple robotics to try to inspire
the young roboticists and engineers of the future and this experience
set me off thinking about designing gaming robots.”
Reach Robotics is anticipating fast future growth and is looking to target the UK and US market in the lead up to Christmas.
Adekunle added: “This is an exciting time for our company as
now after years of development work we are finally able to bring Mekamon
to customers across the UK and US and with plans to go global.
“UWE Bristol has given us an amazing start and we are so grateful for their support.”
-NAN