Christmas, believe it or not, is just around the corner. With many people likely to stay at home this year because of the recession, parents are going to have to think long and hard to find new ways of keeping the kids entertained.

One option is to put Meccano’s new Erector Spykee robot under the Christmas tree. The Spykee is a “spy robot” that can be controlled from a Mac or PC using a Wi-Fi connection or even over the Internet — and ist’ guaranteed to keep the kids busy for days!

The robot, which has to be constructed from myriad component parts — luckily our review unit from Wantitall.co.za was pre-built — has an integrated movie camera so you can see everything it sees from your computer.

I took great delight in chasing my bulldogs around my lounge. However, they seemed less impressed than me, especially when I made the robot emit a few of its integrated alarm sounds.

Recommended for kids older than eight, the Spykee software allows you to turn the robot left and right on its axis and to drive it forward and backward. It can record pictures and video and can even stream music to it over Wi-Fi. You can even use it as a Skype videophone, though I’m really not sure why you’d want to.

Don’t worry about your kids spying on you. You’ll hear the Spykee (R3 596 at Wantitall) coming from 100m away — it’s motor isn’t exactly quiet.

When the robot’s battery is low, it automatically heads back to its charging station and docks itself — pretty neat. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral

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