Sphero’s BB-8 toy droid can now watch Star Wars with you and react to it

Ever wanted to watch Star Wars in the company of a cast member? Now you can do that with Sphero’s BB-8 droid which can watch the movies and react to them.

The Sphero BB-8 toy droid made the headlines last year. It is an impressive engineering feat turning something that was thought to be a product of CGI into reality. Not only that, it is a toy droid which can be controlled via a mobile app and can be programmed to do various things.

The latest update to the app gives BB-8 even more capabilities. Among the new features is one called “Watch with me”. It allows the droid to watch movies along with you. It will even react to whatever is happening on the screen!

The droid will use its built-in microphones to listen to the movie. “Plug BB-8 into his charging station with the app active and the little droid will cower in mock fear when Kylo Ren makes his presence known, whoop happily when Han Solo and Chewbacca appear on screen, and proudly chirrup to himself during his own scenes”, notes The Verge.

At first BB-8 will be able to react to Star Wars: The Force Awakens which was recently released on Blu-ray and DVD. In time you can expect other movies to also be added to BB-8’s list of interests.

The new features will allow the droid to react to other noises, too. For example, if you pop a balloon, the droid will run away scared.