Qbo One desktop robot heads to Indiegogo later this year

Back in 2012, the original Qbo robot caught quite a bit of attention. Today, we're being introduced Thecorpora's next generation Qbo robot, appropriately named the Qbo One. Unlike its predecessor, Qbo One won't be zipping around on its own – instead, it's meant to sit atop your desk and interact with you from there.

Because of that, though, the Qbo One might end up being a little less expensive than the version that came before it. In its announcement today, Thecorpora points out that it has tried "relentlessly to come up with a competitively priced product so that it can be widely accessible to many people around the world."

Right now, details about the Qbo One are a little on the slim side, but we know that it will be an open source robot, just like the original Qbo. The robot has a sleek design that seems to hide some pretty sophisticated hardware, such as a pair of cameras that will serve as its eyes, three microphones it will use to hear, and two digital servos that will allow its head to move around.

Qbo One has been built on Raspberry Pi, Linux, and Blockly, which further lend to its open source nature. Thecorpora is essentially letting the community go wild in developing a range of applications for the robot, giving Qbo One far more possibilities for interaction than if it were a closed-source device.

Of course, whether or not a community forms around Qbo One depends a lot on how much it'll cost, and at the moment that information is being kept under wraps. We'll find out more in June, when Thecorpora kicks off an Indiegogo campaign to secure funding for Qbo One. For now, though, we'll just have to be content watching the short teaser Thecorpora has released, which you'll find posted above.

SOURCE: Thecorpora