Back at CES 2016, Sphero debuted a prototype version of the "Force Band," a wearable that allows users to motion control the iPhone-controlled BB-8. While the Force Band can mostly be used to control BB-8 without an iPhone, it has some select features that need an iPhone and Sphero's Star Wars app (via Engadget).
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The band comes with five modes, two of them for motion controlling BB-8 and other Sphero robots. The three other modes are Force Training Mode, Combat Training Mode and Force Awareness mode. Force Training makes the user follow commands from BB-8 to master Force abilities, allowing the user to "become" a Jedi Knight. Combat Training mode is designed to make the user feel like they're using either a lightsaber or blaster to battle, playing the appropriate sounds based on hand movement.
Force Awareness mode plays like a simplified version of Pokemon Go, with the band pinging a user when they're nearing a Holocron, which look to be some sort of digital collecting card displaying Star Wars characters and items in the app. When a user is out in the world and they are physically near a Holocron, the band alerts the user. They can then take out their iPhone, look at the app, and see what Holocron they obtained. However, it's unclear whether Force Awareness mode uses a mapping system similar to Pokemon Go.
Sphero also announced a special edition battle-worn edition of BB-8 that looks slightly dirtier and worn out. Both the Force Band and battle-worn BB-8 will be available on September 30. The Force Band will be available for $79, but there'll also be a special bundle with both the battle-worn BB-8 and Force Band for $199. Both the droid and Force Band will be available on Sphero's website and select retailers.
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Top Rated Comments
[doublepost=1472736912][/doublepost]Po' Boy Larping
Doubt if the branding will keep it going. Disney has a history of dumping experimental merchandising on small companies like this with only a royalty collected.
For an extra dollar in parts at their volume, they could have had a very nice OLED display making the "Force Band" a much more useful device as a wearable second screen for different apps.
Curious to see if this is a BLE central device that BB-8 pairs to or you still need a Sphero app that's the Central in the personal area network.
Either way, the Force Band is begging for a tear down and hack to mod it. Just a matter of time someone puts a Bluetooth sniffer to this and dumps the BLE service and characteristic profile.
[doublepost=1472716917][/doublepost]Looks more like The Schwartz than The Force to me.