Any voice-controlled toy is pretty cool. R/C helicopters that respond to voice commands are even cooler. The Voice Helicopter, which is made in Japan, should provide some amusement while watching someone who isn’t Japanese control it.
“Engine staato….,” that’s the command you’re supposed to say to get the Voice Helicopter to turn itself on. “Appu,” tells the toy to go higher. Those of you with no Japanese accents, of course, should probably start learning a couple if you want to be able to commandeer the thing. It won’t be that hard, however, since it only accepts four voice commands for now. Speaking into the special headset, you can tell it to start the engine, go up, go down and turn the engine off. The rest of the actions, like turning left or right, should be managed via the radio controller.
The Voice Helicopter sports a stacked-rotor design, which allows it to run without a rear propeller. Don’t worry about using it indoors either, as it rocks a sensitive ceiling sensor that detects overhead obstacles, allowing it to ignore your mindless commands of “upppa….uppppa….” Chopper measures 7 x 7 x 3.7 inches and comes in either blue or camouflage colors. It uses a dual-band radio transceiver, with rechargeable batteries on the chopper and six AA units on the controller.
Note to Japanese companies: any voice-controlled toys you send worldwide soon should respond specifically to English words with Japanese accents. The novelty out of that should be easily worth an extra $20 in retail price, all while saving you the hassle of hiring an English speaker. They have it at Japan Trend Shop now for $76.
[JTS ]
If you are not ready to spend that much, here are some daily deals available on R/C choppers (You don’t have to speak Japanese to control these )