Anki, Inc., robotics and artificial intelligence, computer games, San Francisco, California, USA

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linkedin.com/company/anki

Anki on Wikipedia

Co-founder, President - Hanns Wolfram Tappeiner

Co-founder and CEO - Boris Sofman

Co-founder and Chief Product Officer - Mark Palatucci

Products and projects:

Vector, home robot

Cozmo, toy robot

Drive and Overdrive, robotic toy cars

 

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Article "AI Startup Anki Debuts At WWDC, Wows With Impressive Tech, $50 Million In Funding"

by Jason Dorrier
June 11, 2013

 

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Article "Bot Wheels: Anki Drive’s Cars Are Tiny, High-Speed Robots"
A WWDC debutante's dreams go far beyond revolutionizing toy race cars.

by Harry McCracken
June 14, 2013

 

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Apple Debuts Real-Life Video Game by Anki on WWDC Stage

Published on Jun 10, 2013

At the Apple WWDC, Apple CEO Tim Cook introduced Anki Co-Founder Boris Sofman, who showed off Anki's upcoming real-world video game.

 

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Anki Drive From CES 2014

Published on Jan 7, 2014

Greg Kumparak visits Anki and talks with CPO Mark Palatucci about their new product, Anki Drive.

 

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Boris Sofman, Co-Founder & CEO, ANKI : Consumer Robotics: Story and Lessons

Streamed live on Apr 10, 2014

Anki is a robotics and artificial intelligence company founded by 3 RI PhD students with the goal of bringing these technologies into mass-market consumer products (we now have 11 RI graduates at Anki). Anki's first product, Anki DRIVE, is the first game to combine the speed and excitement of scale model car racing with the gameplay, weapons, and characters of video games. Launched in October 2013 in partnership with Apple, each car in DRIVE understands it's position, can move incredibly precisely, and can think and drive for themselves with unique skills and personalities if not driven by humans. This creates an unprecedented level of interaction and intelligence in physical characters in a mass-market consumer product. In this talk I'll share a bit of the Anki story and some of the lessons learned in our journey: developing a consumer product from prototype to mass production (and how this deviates from PhD style research), aggressively balancing price and functionality, quickly reacting to new technologies and trends, fund-raising, growing a diverse team, and working with retail / marketing / PR.

 

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Anki DRIVE's New Cars And Tracks

Published on Apr 16, 2014

Today, Anki is announcing two new cars, two new tracks and a 'race' mode to go along with the standard 'battle' mode. The cars have their own specialties — Corax can mount multiple virtual 'weapons' for more battle-readiness and Hadion is faster as it has access to Turbo Boost right out of the box. The cars are $69 and available online at Anki and Amazon. Colleen Taylor visits Anki DRIVE in San Francisco to see their new cars and tracks in action.

 

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Anki Drive Starter Kit Full Review. Smart Robot Battle Cars Racing Game

Published on Oct 23, 2014

Today we review the Anki Drive Starter Set. AnkiDrive is racing cars and video games and battle robots - all in one!

We LOVED Anki Drive. It is so much more fun than slot racing cars. It is also more fun than video game racing cars. The ability to battle, upgrade the cars, race against friends and do it all without flying off the track - makes this so much fun to play.

Here is more info on Anki Drive -

Gameplay
Up to four Anki DRIVE cars can race per game, in three exciting game modes: Battle Mode, Race Mode, and Team Mode. In Battle Mode the first car to score a set number of takeouts wins. In Race Mode it’s an all-out fight to the finish line. In Team Mode players can join up with friends or self-controlled cars to battle against opponents. Each human-controlled car requires a dedicated iOS or Android device. Cars not connected to a device can be set to steer and fight for themselves in a race to outsmart their competition.

The STARTER KIT comes with BOSON and KOURAI. Under the hood of each Anki DRIVE car is a built-in computer. This hardware gives every vehicle the ability to effortlessly stay on the track as you fire at opponents and maneuver your position.

Car commanders can customize each car with exclusive upgrades using points earned in-game: increase a car’s speed on the track, boost weapons, and much more. Add an expansion car (sold separately), and you can get even more friends and family in on the battle-racing action.

The included STARTER TRACK rolls out to 8.5 x 3.5 feet. Flat surfaces are best for gameplay so any floor in your home will work. The track is durable and holds up to paw and footprints. Add an expansion track (sold separately) to boost the family fun and challenge even the most skilled drivers.

Everything your family needs to play is in the box. Open the STARTER KIT, unroll the track, and unleash two unique robot car warriors: BOSON, the Fast Attacker, and KOURAI, the Agile Striker. Challenge friends to a head-to-head battle, or see if you have what it takes to beat a self-controlled robot car.

 

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Published on Nov 25, 2014

Some friends and I playing Anki Drive in 2014, during the Super Bowl halftime.

 

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CS 287 Guest Lecture: Anki, Bradford Neuman

Published on Nov 18, 2015

A guest lecture from Bradford Neuman, AI Engineer, Anki, for Pieter Abbeel's Fall 2015 Advanced Robotics CS 287 class at University of California, Berkeley.

 

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Article "The once-hot robotics startup Anki is shutting down after raising more than $200 million"
It’s a hard, hard fall.

by Theodore Schleifer
April 29, 2019