eWEEK content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.
Comdex may have its Vegas dancing girls and booth babes, but at least one JavaOne partner will take a step toward entertaining its attendees at this years San Francisco event.
Flashline, a software component products and services provider, will introduce its remotely controlled Lego Mindstorms JavaOne mascot robot. The robot claps, can follow light sources, and does a little dance via commands from a Motorola i50sx phone and infrared link.
No, the unnamed robot doesnt just wag his tail, clap his large yellow hands, and shake his BattleBot bootie for laughs.
Both the application and handset use J2ME technology, which can be leveraged into other components. (Maybe the robot should come with its own digital organ donor card.)
Flashlines CEO Charles Stack stresses the business aspect: “The key point here is that Java runs on so many platforms.” But Stack admits that the boogie bot is an attempt at publicity, too.
“One of the things we wanted to do was get it into the keynote,” he says. “We thought clapping would be something that Scott McNealy would like.”
McNealy and other high-tech CEOs certainly love applause, but weve got another suggestion. If the robot can swing a hockey stick, it may score with McNealy—a diehard hockey fan who has been known to lace up for local Silicon Valley games.