Its not often my job as a technology journalist requires me to wade out into a river in the British countryside.
As they say, water and technology dont mix.Well, thats all starting to change thanks to more robust waterproofing finding its way into consumer technology.
I can use my phone in the shower (although I dont), I can drop my e-reader in the bath (although I shouldnt), and I can chuck a drone in a river (and Im actually supposed to).Thats because this is no ordinary drone, its an underwater drone called Biki by Robosea.
The box has the (slightly ominous) tagline We can see emblazoned on it, alongside the claim that Biki is the Worlds first bionic wireless underwater fish drone.
You can see why I called it in.Getting to grips with a robot fishBiki is like a robot of an inflated cyclops pufferfish that you can control with your phone.
On the Kickstarter page Biki is white, so it's with great surprise that I open the box to find a bright yellow robo-fish sat waiting to be awoken and tossed into the murky depths.There is a remote control that comes with Biki, which has a little wrist strap like you got on Nintendo Wii remotes, I imagine so that when youre out for a swim in the ocean with your scale-less fishy friend you can have the remote control easily accessible without having it hinder your swimming hands (official term).After charging Biki up, I booted up the accompanying app, and then spent a frustratingly long period of time trying to get my phone and Biki to talk to each other.
Its one of those systems where Biki makes its own Wi-Fi network that you have to connect to.
It was not a fluid process and by the end of it I was ready to chuck Biki in a river, which was handy.Camera and lights at the front, flipper at the back.
Fish.I'm contemplating putting on some fishing waders so I can get some proper depth, and have Biki swim around me, like I'm the Little Mermaid and Biki is Flounder, but my wife sagely convinces me not to.In the end I opt for a hefty pair of wellington boots, and off we trudge to the picturesque River Itchen, Hampshire, UK.
At 1.1kg, Biki isnt the lightest thing to carry around with you, but I quite like having him tucked under my arm, and I'm on an adventure, so I dont mind carrying my new robo-friend.Work my little friend, workWe get to the river and the moment of truth arrivesand Biki has forgotten my phone exists, again.
I go through the series of stages of turning Biki on and off, looking at the LED for when its in pairing mode, opening my phones Wi-Fi, all the while my wife and dog are swiftly losing interest.But then success! Im connected.
I gently lower Biki into the water and he starts swimming! I dont know why, but he went from it to he as soon as he started swimming and you cant convince me otherwise.Be free my robotic water-child (GIF courtesy of Robosea)Hes clearly designed for swimming in the ocean, and the current of the Itchen is proving a little too much for the little fella although he's putting in a valiant effort.Now, the Itchen is famous for being full of fish, so I'm really hoping for some amazing shots of fish swimming past, noticing Biki, adopting him as one of their own, but unfortunately I'm out of season, so Biki is just under there with nothing but some weed for company.Which is a real shame, because Bikis 4K camera does look like it's was capable of taking some really lovely images.
Certainly the pictures I took when holding him just out of the water are nice to look at.Here you can see both the hilarity of the menu screen, and a sample of the image qualityA fish out of waterLike the friendless schoolkid at his birthday party, I'm not going to let poor attendance get in the way of me and Biki having an awesome time, so I decide to test out his swimming capabilities.I run into a slight problem in that the Wi-Fi connection doesnt do brilliantly underwater once Biki gets more than a couple of meters away from me.
I try moving over to the remote control, which doesnt seem to work at all.
From looking at the Biki website I'm assured that Biki is the most agile water fairy, and that underwater Biki Robotic Fish adopts the acoustic communication technique.
(Ive since come to realise this means that you have to put both the remote and Biki underwater and then they communicate acoustically.
I wish Id figured that out in the river.
And taken the waders.)So I end up using my phone to make Biki swim about for a bit, but the current almost pulls him into the weeds, and no matter how frantic his little flippers flap he cant get back to me.
I wade to him, scoop him out of the water, and hold his cold, hard body against me.
That sounds very morbid.
He's fine, hes just a robot.Ultimately, I enjoyed playing with Biki a lot, and I think if I was in a body of water with less of a current and more to look at, hed have been a brilliant companion.
I can imagine if youre going diving, the fact he can get down to 196ft, has lights to take photos of the dark ocean bottom, and has onboard storage for up to 32GB worth of images, hed be really handy in helping you document your dive.I do think his top swim speed is a bit of an issue, as he had to swim at full power just to stop the river from taking him away.
And also, the Wi-Fi connection through water wasnt great.The crowdfunding projects are now closed, and Biki will soon be available for $1,024 (about 750, AU$1,300), a sizable jump from the Early Bird discount of $549, that came with the brilliant message: You have fun, but we're still going to give you $475 off retail! Now get a BIKI and cheer up.UcrQbQcGiozSUFLySK4ere.jpg#