Sphero Rolls into Twilio for a Night of Robotic Telephony

Sphero Rolls into Twilio for a Night of Robotic Telephony

During WWDC earlier this month we grabbed the Orbotix team, creators of the robotic ball and gaming system Sphero, for a night of hacking at Twilio HQ. Developers visiting from as far as New York, Virginia and London came by to take Sphero’s SDK for a test drive. We saw great Sphero apps built in just a matter of hours, and one epic Twilio and Sphero mashup. Check out the apps and developers behind them below.

Can’t wait to get hands on with Sphero? Sphero’s in the middle of a national Hack Tour with Seattle, Boston, San Francisco and New York on the docket. Sign up for your city.

Sphero Mood Light, Powered by Twilio

Larry Legend, a developer based in Brooklyn, NY, built a Sphero Mood Light that allows you to text or call in a command which changes the color on both Sphero and your iOS device.

Larry is the founder of House of Legend, a Brooklyn-based iOS app developer shop. Follow Larry on Twitter @LarryLegend to find out when he posts this awesome code.

Sphero Hide and Seek

Sphero has a lot of personality, and developer Roger Pincombe definitely built an app that shows off this robotic ball’s spirit. Roger built an app that pairs four or more Spheros for a game of hide and seek. Once paired one Sphero will glow gold, which tags your seeker. Next the other Spheros move and flash chaotically (hiding!).

Roger said “It’s hide and seek with a bunch of tiny robotic balls!  What could be more fun?”. The code is still in production but you can find it here.

Pong Sphero

Scott McAlister hacked a Sphero Pong app that utilized the Sphero LEDs. Depending on what paddle hit the puck on an iPhone Pong game, Sphero lights up red or blue. Though he didn’t have time to build out the rest of the game, he wanted to have Sphero replicate the path of the pong puck. We hope you keep working on that app with your new Sphero because we’re ready to play it.

Scott is the founder of 4 Arrows Media which specializes in iOS app development. Follow Scott @scott4arrows.

Sphero Alarm Clock

Tom Corwine thought Sphero would be a great way to get someone out of bed, especially if you can’t catch him. With his iOS app, when you alarm goes off, Sphero takes off in random directions. Tom is the Lead Engineer at Tracks, a mobile app that allows private image sharing. Find the initial code here on GitHub and you can follow him @tomsiPhoneApps.

These developers all took home a Sphero of their own to keep building and Larry also scored a SparkFun Arduino Inventor’s Kit for his Twilio and Sphero Mashup. We hope to see you at our next hack night and can’t wait to see what Sphero apps are built next.