Shimi smart musical robot comes to the iPhone
You may recall back in June, we first talked about the Android-powered Shimi dancing robot speaker dock. The speaker dock was aimed at Android smartphone users and would dance and tap its little robotic foot to the tunes you playback from your smartphone. Inside the robot's head is a pair of speakers.
Shimi turned up this week on Kickstarter seeking funding for a new iPhone version of the little dancing speaker dock. The project will fund on October 10, assuming it meets its fundraising goal. That fundraising goal is $100,000 and so far, it has raised $16,244 from 124 backers. The project has 28 more days to go before funding ends.
If you're interested in the Shimi, the cheapest pledge that will get you one of the little robots worked out to $129 and was available to the first 100 backers, but that is sold out. Right now if you want to get your own Shimi pre-ordered on Kickstarter, it will cost you $149. The developers are also offering a pack for $800 that gets six of the Shimi devices.
The funds raised via the Kickstarter campaign will be used to move from the Android-based prototype to the iPhone platform. The developers promise there will be an Android version as well. Money will also be used to redesign the components used in the robot for low-cost durability. One key part to the fundraising is to raise money to create tooling and parts for mass production.