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You’ll Be Able to Control BB-8 with The Force (And a Wristband)

Any Star Wars fan worth his or her salt has tried it—and if you’re one of them, you know what “it” is. You’ve found yourself sitting at a long red light. You’ve closed your eyes, concentrated really hard, and waved your hand slowly before your face in a fruitless attempt to change the signal to green. Sadly, none of us are strong enough in the Force to conjure such power, so we have to find other ways to live out our Jedi dreams. Which is why this news from Sphero about allowing us to control our BB-8 toy with nothing more than a gesture is way more exciting than it should be.

Later this year, Sphero will be releasing a Rebel Alliance adorned wristband that will allow users to “Force control” their BB-8 electronic mini toy. Using hand and arm gestures, wannabe Jedi Masters will be able to make the adorable droid from The Force Awakens come, go, turn, spin, nod, look away, and generally bandy about.

Sphero-bb-8-wristband

The wristband is still just a prototype, and doesn’t have a release date or a price yet. However, Sphero they did allow Ross Miller at The Verge to try it out at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Based on his experiences it sounds like this addition to the very cool toy still has some kinks to work out (spinning in one place to make BB-8 spin doesn’t sound like a cool Jedi move, but more like a dance team routine).

Make sure you watch Miller’s video and read his full review, and in the meantime keep practicing on those red lights. I know it hasn’t worked before, but in case you didn’t hear, there has been an awakening in the Force. You never know.

What other toys would you love to be able to use the Force on? Tell us below.

HT: The Verge
Featured Image: Sphero
Wristband Image: The Verge/YouTube

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