When Intel brings a Segway hoverboard on stage at CES and says it can transform into a robot, people take notice.

Then when demonstrators attach arms to the hoverboard robot, people get really excited.

“Oh, I want one,” said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research. “I thought it was exciting since it’s the first robot like this that we have seen. Both companies thought about what’s possible and built something that is significantly different than what’s on the market today.”

At Tuesday’s opening keynote at CES, the annual consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich caught the audience’s attention when he showed off a hoverboard, built by Segway and powered by an Intel atom chip, that can turn into a robot by simply popping its robotic head out of a knee-high pole that comes up out of the board.

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