Cozmo, The Little Robot "Lost In Reddit," Was Safe With Us The Whole Tim

How often have you gone to check Reddit's main page only to come to your senses hours later, wondering where the time went?

Yes, you were lost in Reddit.

Well, tech company Anki teamed up with W+K Lodge (and a bunch of other people, including us) to help their little robot Cozmo find his way out of Reddit with the input of millions of users.

Cozmo is about five inches long and moves around on tractor treads. He responds to commands but also learns as you control him, developing a personality. Easily the smartest toy we've ever met.

Bent Image Lab created intricate, miniature sets representing seven of the most popular "rooms" in the online community. These are subreddits like r/memeeconomy and r/rarepuppers. Then in a 6 hour multi-camera livestream, millions of Redditors went online to help Cozmo navigate his way through each of the sets. 

It was basically a series of escape rooms where the solutions were crowd-sourced.

The online event, which happened November 14, was a huge success with participants helping the little robot make it through all the rooms with an hour to spare.

Logistically, it was the most complex production ever done here at Cine Rent West. We needed all our studio space, office space, plus broadcast, satellite, and internet semi trucks parked outside. 

There were more than 20 cameras to switch between when the event went live. (That's about how many they use for Monday Night Football.) Uncle Toad's Media Group supplied all the cameras and the satellite and broadcast. 

When you're doing a complex event live, you need to plan for every possible outcome.

Fortunately, we had some of the best miniature set people in the industry, working alongside lighting techs, camera operators, robotics controllers, and all kinds of other skilled crew.

In a couple of weeks we'll do a follow-up post with interviews and more details.

But in the meantime, watch the preview and wrap-up videos. And then ask Santa for a Cozmo.