Why Anki's Cozmo Robot Leaps In Value This December

Anki's Cozmo Robot is set to get an update in December to increase its abilities and expand its intelligence. This will be the first major update to the robot since launch, and Anki suggests it'll be a big one. Anki says their goal is to make the robot grow and learn well into the future so that its owners will never find it boring. At this point it's able to lift cubes, play games with cubes, and speak our name. Next, it gets a whole lot more interesting.

We had the opportunity to have a close look at this robot in our early Anki Cozmo robot review. There we found the robot to be full of interesting abilities and a surprising amount of personality. It's as if we have our own personal – tiny – Wall-E to hang out with and play games with.

This robot was not just meant to remind its user of Wall-E, its personality was designed by one of the same guys who created that exact Pixar legend. Instead of replicating any one recognizable character from the past, Cozmo was made to be his own character, living out the story of his life with his owner. Cozmo is not a reaction to an on-screen character, Cozmo is the genesis for new ideas.

As such, the folks at Anki are bringing new features to Cozmo to continue to grow and interact with his users. A new game called Memory Match will be introduced. This game will be played with the three cubes that come with the robot, and will be played out much like the game Simon.

Explorer Mode will be enhanced, allowing the user to control Cozmo with additional abilities. While users were able to see through Cozmo's eyes and drive around before, this update will allow Night Vision for darkness. This update will also add the ability to control Cozmo's lifter arm to push and lift blocks.

SEE: Cozmo does for robotics what iOS did for apps

Cozmo's ability to speak will expand beyond learning his user's name. This update will allow the user to type words into Cozmo's app and have him speak. Don't expect him to speak swear words, though – he'll be protected against adult language.

In addition to flipping out when pushed over or lifted off the ground, Cozmo will now sense and react to animals. Anki says he'll react to dogs and cats now – we'll be interested to see how he handles them. Cozmo will also begin to work out when given Sparks with this update, bringing on cuteness in large amounts.

This will be just the first in a long line of big updates to this robot from Anki. Cozmo will be active well into the future, and hopefully past his shelf life – we'll be keeping an eye out! See more abilities Cozmo is capable of in the review video below, and have a peek at our full review for all the details a person might need before gifting this robot for the holidays.