On Tuesday, Jeff Gray, a professor in the University of Alabama’s College of Engineering, handed a student at the Tuscaloosa Magnet Middle School a smooth white ball about the size of a tennis ball.
After linking the ball, called a Sphero, wirelessly to his laptop computer through Bluetooth, Gray asked the student holding Sphero to wave her hands and say a magic word.
“Presto blah, blah, blah,” she uttered, wiggling her arms and fingers.