Buddibot launches mobile webcam in India

Away from home and looking for a way to keep in touch with your elderly parents? Travelling with family and worried about your home security? With Rovio, a Wi-Fi-enabled robotic webcam, you will always be just a click away from your loved ones. And, Rovio will also double as a dog in the night (a roving home surveillance system).

Buddibot, a Hyderabad-headquartered startup, on Thursday launched Rovio, the flagship patented product of Montreal-based WowWee Technologies, in the Indian market. The company will distribute Rovio mobile webcams in India via the Reliance Digital chain and online at www.smartbotsdirect.com for Rs 14,850.

“The webcam is designed to keep the distributed families emotionally connected remotely, especially the younger ones with the elder members, regardless of their physical presence,” Subbarao Machiraju, co-founder and chief executive of Buddibot, said here.

According to the Helpage Society, 11 per cent of India's 80 million elderly live alone or with non-relatives. By 2025, it is estimated that 25 per cent of those over 60 and 40 per cent of those over 75 of the estimated 198 million are likely to be living alone. Besides, India has about 40 million NRI population that is looking to be connected, a target market for Buddibot, he added.

Rovio can move in any direction and enables to view and interact through streaming video and audio. The robot, which can be controlled from anywhere in the world using a web-enabled device, has a self-docking function that allows the user to send Rovio back to the charging dock to recharge, remotely.

“We will be providing software services to the mobile webcam that include navigation, setting reminders and playing some podcasts for an annual subscription of Rs 1,750. Initially, we will be launching the service in Hyderabad as a test bed, before going pan-India in the next two to three months. We expect to sell about 3,000 units in the country and garner 6,000 subscriptions worldwide this year,” Machiraju said.