Sun Valley robot offers remote control stone skipping

For anyone who didn’t get an invite to the annual Sun Valley conference in Idaho this week, ad agency Eleven has an innovative solution. It won’t get you a face-to-face with Tim Cook, but Skippy the Robot will let you skip a real stone across a real Sun Valley lake without ever leaving your browser.

Designed to promote the resort as a tourist destination, Skippy allows users to control angle and force, recording each throw. Sign-up is via Facebook Connect or Twitter, providing a simple conduit for sharing the resulting video.

As with anything in the real world, Skippy has its limitations — users can only skip stones during Mountain Time daylight hours, and, as Gizmag points out, there’s usually a pretty big queue. It’s still an ingenious idea, though, and a step up from the famous Trojan Room coffee pot. For more about the project, check out the “making of” video below.