One of the coolest gadgets at this year’s CES was the Sony Rolly. It’s a robotic MP3 player that moves its six moving parts — arms, shoulders, and wheels — in time with the music. It also has two light-rings that pulse to the music through a range of 700 colors. The built-in stereo speakers are designed for 180-degree coverage.
The best part about the Rolly is the software that ships with it. A timeline-based editor will let you sync the movements and light pulsing to specific points in the music. The Sony rep I spoke with at the booth said the script is then saved with the music file, so you could create as many choreographed songs as you like.
It has 2GB of memory for music storage and supports the MP3 and non-secure AAC formats. It also has Bluetooth with the A2DP profile, so you could stream music to the Rolly from a Bluetooth-compatible cell phone or laptop.
Sony hasn’t announced a price for the Rolly. It should be available this Spring.