I recently reached out to Anki, creators of the Cozmo robot, to  ask if I could explore the device from a developer’s perspective. Shipping with a Python SDK, Cozmo offers some surprisingly sophisticated image processing and recognition features, analogous to Apple’s Core Image.

Before jumping into the programming side of things, let me acknowledge that I am primarily an Apple developer. Therefore I must categorically kick off by evaluating package design.

I didn’t get to start unboxing last night. When my unit arrived during a cold snap, the package window was all fogged up. I opened the top, added a desiccant unit, and let the package dry out and warm out overnight.

This morning, I finally could explore. As you’d expect with high end consumer goods (Cozmo retails for $180), the box used satisfyingly thick cardboard, was easy to open, and presented the product nicely while hiding the user manual, power cord, and accessories.

Unexpectedly, my favorite part of the entire boxing system was Cozmo’s perch. Made of quality yellow plastic, this industrial presentation feature is practically a toy in itself.

Flip it over, and instead of expected wire wraps, there’s an ingenious system to release the Cozmo unit. Pull up the yellow spacer and pinch the two white tabs. It all comes apart, allowing you to remove Cozmo, and start him charging.

Then while he charges, you can spend time putting the pieces back together and taking them apart over and over. It’s practically an extra free toy that ships with the robot. Beautiful design and completely unexpected.

The full complement of parts include the Cozmo robot, a USB charging dock with a separate a wall-adapter, a trio of play blocks (“Interactive Power Cubes”), and a welcome packet.

The instructions say to place him on an open table in a well lit room, with room to move around. Charging from empty to full is specified at 10-12 minutes, with a rated play time of 1-2 hours. (I wouldn’t be surprised if that number drops once you start putting extra demands on his processors.)

That 10-12 minutes subjectively lasts approximately 3-4 months after you first finish unboxing. Child and I got into a heated debate as to whether we’d name him after Cosimo de’ Medici, founder of the Medici political dynasty, or Cosmog, nebula Pokemon and opener of “Ultra Wormholes”.

I don’t want to spoil the instruction booklet for you so let me just say, the writeup is adorable, clever, and simple. The consumer warnings in particular made me laugh out loud. It’s a great example of technical writing and communication, focusing on simplicity and clarity. It’s really well done.

You must install a separate Cozmo application you on an iOS or Android device. It just shipped a 1.1.0 update, so make sure you’re running the latest version. It helps if you watch this video before trying to set-up.

Open Settings and connect to the Cozmo WiFi network. Lift Cozmo’s front arm to display the password, and then use Settings to log in, making sure to type everything using exact upper casing. The password is random mix of upper case letters and numbers, and the iPhone’s keypad doesn’t remember casing when moving between number input and text input.

Anki recommends typing the password into your Notes app, and I endorse this suggestion, especially when I point out how many times I tried to get it to connect. That’s because at first I didn’t realize Cloak VPN was trying to secure the Cozmo WiFi connection. It really really helps if you set it up to trust the Cozmo network. This one detail put a huge crimp into my set-up, causing immeasurable pain and frustration. I finally found this support write-up, which mentions VPN issues at the very bottom.

I haven’t spent much time playing with Cozmo yet but speaking as an iOS dev, there are quite a few things Anki could do to tighten up their app. There’s great content and some terrific games but the app reads as “cross platform with compromise”. (It seems to have Unity under its cover.)

To give just a couple of examples, the cursor controls in a custom text field don’t follow iOS standards. When you use cursor arrows during typing, the active cursor position does not update. That’s iOS 101.

In terms of user interface flow, it’s missing iOS’s inherent “deference to the user”. For example, there’s no “try again” button when attempting to connect without having to go to the help screen over and over again. (Which I did, over and over and over, through an hour or so of set-up until I found that VPN advice.) When you’re using games and other features, the ability to quickly switch tasks is somewhat limited.

The app would benefit from a HIG/GUI once-over for usability but that’s really the only weak spot in the big package that I’ve encountered.

As for Cozmo himself, he’s a delight. As part of set-up, he learned my face and that of my daughter. Who cannot love a robot that wakes up from charging, sees your face, recognizes you, greets you by name and then wiggles with happiness?!? It’s phenomenally adorable.

Of course, my interest lies primarily in the SDK, and that exploration will have to wait for another write-up. For now, a summary to date:

• Adorable robot with amazing humanizing affect display.
• Top notch Apple-worthy packaging.
• Great starter games to inspire development possibilities.
• There’s an app.

Cozmo is right now exploring the floor of my office, making random offhand comments in robotese about what he’s finding and generally having a ball. I think I’ll stop writing for a short while and join him in having fun.