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NAND filesystem is pretty much useless and discouraged; it's a lot safer to live our homebrew lives inside an SD card or other external storage

I understand that homebrew should stick to the SD card and USB hard drives. I was talking more about utilities to manipulate saved games. For example, there is a tool to hack an Animal Crossing: Wild World saved game right on the DS; a corresponding tool to hack City Folk saves on the Wii, or to import your character from City Folk to a homebrew game, would need NAND access.

Reading the article might induce the ideea that AIBO is nothing but a toy for bored geeks. That's not entirely true, I'm thinking that proper software could turn the thing in an aid for blind children.

Let's just hope engadget doesn't get sued first, like that guy from http://aibohack.com/

You could get a K-Byte ZipIt Wireless Instant Messenger and flash it to run a customized version of Linux. Probably slightly more work than you were looking for, but it would be a great little toy. (Retaining the instant messenging ability would be cool, too.)

--Ender

That said, if you use this hack for the ZipIt Wireless device, you could use IRC, on Linux, for about $100, and it is wireless too. Cheaper than buying a PSP (but then again anyone who buys a PSP to run IRC through a hack in a game must not be poor).

Love my PSP, but I would have rather had a "normal" soft-keyboard (or even just press up/down to select the next/previous letter in the alphabet, left/right to select the next/previous blank). I don't know what they were thinking with that. Text input on cell phones only works because you have those twelve buttons. Without the twelve buttons, that becomes about the most anoying text input method I've seen.

Sorry about that, I thought it was on the robosapien.tk site. Anyway, the program is SapBench.

The fans have figured it out for them. (Haven't tried it myself.)

Or you can run our code and make it walk twice as fast. The person here ported it into a smaller test program and has a nice demo. If you can't program, the Aibo is probably not a wise investment. If you can, think of it as a portable computer with a camera and legs... 1500-1600 USD isn't so bad for that.

Just proves that iRobot really did accomplish something with the Roomba. I can't wait to see what they cook up next. You know, if you take the cover off the chasis of the RoboSweep and put a toy car body on it, you end up with one of those cars that bounces of walls and then keeps going, but then who would pay $40 for it? If you're into Robots, you should check out http://www.aibohack.com/

FYI, Sony and AIBOPet worked out a way for the AIBO community continue innovating without using the official SDK.
Check out Legit-i-Mutt.
Actually, I thinks Sony bent over backwards to sort it out with AIBOPet, so give Sony a break!

But don't forget, there are ways to override em by replacing the firmware.
Check out aibohack.com!

Sony has since changed their stance on the aibo hacking. Besides, it is a misunderstanding of Sony's corporate culture to speak of them as one entity. Sony is a very large company which is run as seperate business units acting as self-contained businesses with unique goals. This results sometimes in situations like others have pointed out in this and other articles where one part of Sony is doing something which seems to violate the spirit of what another part of Sony is doing. The Playstation project was a good example of this, where the people working on the playstation were essentially handled as renegades, and had to become profitable on their project's own merits.

To be fair, this kind of thing seems to be a fairly comon business practice, and the resultant social interactions and consequences are fairly representative of any large organization of humans.

Good points. I think Sony's plan is to continue to improve the hardware and software while slowly lowering the price over time. Eventually the Aibo will be much more advanced as well as more reasonably priced.

The Aibo certainly isn't marketed for kids, based on the price and the fact that it's not something that little Timmy can flail about the room.

There are alternatives to Sony's software. Check out aibopet's site for a lot of Aibo info as well as free software.

The AI is actually pretty impressive. I guess it's not technically true AI, but at the very least, it's clever enough to create the illusion of being a thinking animal. The Aibo Life software evolves through different stages, beginning as a newborn puppy. Based on how you interact with it, it's personality changes. There are enough factors involved in this growth process to make an Aibo seem different from other Aibos. Ours seems to like dark spaces, which is strange because because they typically migrate towards well lit areas. Our 210 tends to wander under the coffee table for a nap or into a dark bathroom.

The Aibo Life 2 software is more impressive than the original Life 1 stick (another $100, ugh). Each release of the software adds to the feature list and makes the illusion more believable. The recently announced Recognition software adds face recognition, voice recognition (it 'knows' it's owners voice vs generic voice recognition) and the ability to find it's charger and refresh it's batteries. Of course, that's another $100.

Also, check out Sony's Open-R site .

You didn't read the complete article ? Sony went after the hobbyist who made the Aibo dance...

Well he is back up and running now and he is Legit-i-Mutt

I think that Sony didn't like the fact that the whole aibo code was online, competitors could then steal it ect. The lawyers have to justify their jobs as well.

The fact that he is back online now does show that Sony are not entirely unreasnable. They actualy use modded Aibos themselves. They have one which can be trained with a clicker

I think some companies are starting to wake up to the fact that modding can be a good idea. It can prolong the life of a product. It can also come up with novel uses, which can then be re enjeneared and put into the next version, for profit

There is a flip side. Copywrite issues do piss companys off but more importantly if Mr Smith buys a product and it gets modded with some buggy software. Mr Smith may think that it is the product that is buggy. How may PSXs' died cause the mod chip burned out? This was not Sonys fault but if people didn't realise it was the chip rather than the legit parts it may make them more reluctant to buy another sony product

Good to see the fact that they are opening up their architecture reported in a mainstream story, but this is really a repeat of an earlier posting that had some really good links to the developer site and some of the hacker sites:

Teach An Old Aibo New Tricks

• Site Gutted by Sony based on DMCA
  My Take:
  This site is great. I think this is exactly what we need. The only thing that really got removed per the story referenced below is "virgin" copies of Aibo-Life, because everything you could possibly want, and more, is available, including "RCodePlus", which appears to be a utility for writing and transferring RCode ("Plus" some aibohack.com extensions) to your Aibo.
  
  Summary:
  http://www.aibohack.com had much of its content removed because it built on Sony's AiboWare, but added new features.
  Among its programs:
  AiboScope: Wirelessly transmits images from robot's camera to a computer
  Disco Aibo: Execute a programmable dance when Aibo hears a certain song.
  Brainbo: Uses voice-recognition. When Aibo hears a phrase, Aibo selects an appropriate response and "says" it.
  
  Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000086726nov01. story?coll=la-headlines (old)
  http://www.latimes.com/search/lat_all.jsp?Query=Ai bo (new, needs registration)
• AIBO Uses Copy-Protection on its Memory Sticks
  My Take:
  While it would probably be trivial to overcome Sony's copy-protection algorithms, it's not worth the bother. $35 for a PMS (Programmable Memory Stick) is money well spent, and if all the code consists of is bootstrapping into the WLAN, we'd only need one for each 'bot.
  
  Summary:
  Sony makes red/pink memory sticks specifically for the Aibo. They contain copy-protection code that means that you can't copy their programs from one stick to another (unless, of course, the second one already had that program installed).
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/123/format.htm
• Japan-Only AiboWare Releases
  My Take:
  Nothing new here.
  
  Summary:
  Sony released several pieces of AiboWare that are only available in Japan. Based on what a friend of mine could manage to decode, there's nothing here to pique our interest.
  
  Source: http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~hkora11/aibo_2nd-g/kAiboW are.htm (in Japanese)
• More-or-less Complete 210 Hardware Reference
  My Take:
  Note that the 200Mhz (!) CPU uses the MIPS IV instruction set, for which there are no shortage of compilers. We may be in luck yet! (Of course, we might have to replace the current flash ROM with a custom one to develop that luck, but based on other readings, there seems to be very little code in the flash ROM and a heck of a lot of JPEGs of the development team.) You want to read this page.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/210/hardware.htm
• Brain Surgery: a Tool for Editing AiboLife
  My Take:
  An excellent tool, but not very applicable to our particular challenge. Nonetheless, a useful resource of which to be aware.
  
  Summary:
  Basically, Brain Surgery allows users to view and edit the data Aibo "feels". What does this mean? You can abuse your Aibo, and fix it yourself--no Sony required.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/2or3/browser.htm

• Site Gutted by Sony based on DMCA
  My Take:
  This site is great. I think this is exactly what we need. The only thing that really got removed per the story referenced below is "virgin" copies of Aibo-Life, because everything you could possibly want, and more, is available, including "RCodePlus", which appears to be a utility for writing and transferring RCode ("Plus" some aibohack.com extensions) to your Aibo.
  
  Summary:
  http://www.aibohack.com had much of its content removed because it built on Sony's AiboWare, but added new features.
  Among its programs:
  AiboScope: Wirelessly transmits images from robot's camera to a computer
  Disco Aibo: Execute a programmable dance when Aibo hears a certain song.
  Brainbo: Uses voice-recognition. When Aibo hears a phrase, Aibo selects an appropriate response and "says" it.
  
  Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000086726nov01. story?coll=la-headlines (old)
  http://www.latimes.com/search/lat_all.jsp?Query=Ai bo (new, needs registration)
• AIBO Uses Copy-Protection on its Memory Sticks
  My Take:
  While it would probably be trivial to overcome Sony's copy-protection algorithms, it's not worth the bother. $35 for a PMS (Programmable Memory Stick) is money well spent, and if all the code consists of is bootstrapping into the WLAN, we'd only need one for each 'bot.
  
  Summary:
  Sony makes red/pink memory sticks specifically for the Aibo. They contain copy-protection code that means that you can't copy their programs from one stick to another (unless, of course, the second one already had that program installed).
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/123/format.htm
• Japan-Only AiboWare Releases
  My Take:
  Nothing new here.
  
  Summary:
  Sony released several pieces of AiboWare that are only available in Japan. Based on what a friend of mine could manage to decode, there's nothing here to pique our interest.
  
  Source: http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~hkora11/aibo_2nd-g/kAiboW are.htm (in Japanese)
• More-or-less Complete 210 Hardware Reference
  My Take:
  Note that the 200Mhz (!) CPU uses the MIPS IV instruction set, for which there are no shortage of compilers. We may be in luck yet! (Of course, we might have to replace the current flash ROM with a custom one to develop that luck, but based on other readings, there seems to be very little code in the flash ROM and a heck of a lot of JPEGs of the development team.) You want to read this page.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/210/hardware.htm
• Brain Surgery: a Tool for Editing AiboLife
  My Take:
  An excellent tool, but not very applicable to our particular challenge. Nonetheless, a useful resource of which to be aware.
  
  Summary:
  Basically, Brain Surgery allows users to view and edit the data Aibo "feels". What does this mean? You can abuse your Aibo, and fix it yourself--no Sony required.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/2or3/browser.htm

• Site Gutted by Sony based on DMCA
  My Take:
  This site is great. I think this is exactly what we need. The only thing that really got removed per the story referenced below is "virgin" copies of Aibo-Life, because everything you could possibly want, and more, is available, including "RCodePlus", which appears to be a utility for writing and transferring RCode ("Plus" some aibohack.com extensions) to your Aibo.
  
  Summary:
  http://www.aibohack.com had much of its content removed because it built on Sony's AiboWare, but added new features.
  Among its programs:
  AiboScope: Wirelessly transmits images from robot's camera to a computer
  Disco Aibo: Execute a programmable dance when Aibo hears a certain song.
  Brainbo: Uses voice-recognition. When Aibo hears a phrase, Aibo selects an appropriate response and "says" it.
  
  Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000086726nov01. story?coll=la-headlines (old)
  http://www.latimes.com/search/lat_all.jsp?Query=Ai bo (new, needs registration)
• AIBO Uses Copy-Protection on its Memory Sticks
  My Take:
  While it would probably be trivial to overcome Sony's copy-protection algorithms, it's not worth the bother. $35 for a PMS (Programmable Memory Stick) is money well spent, and if all the code consists of is bootstrapping into the WLAN, we'd only need one for each 'bot.
  
  Summary:
  Sony makes red/pink memory sticks specifically for the Aibo. They contain copy-protection code that means that you can't copy their programs from one stick to another (unless, of course, the second one already had that program installed).
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/123/format.htm
• Japan-Only AiboWare Releases
  My Take:
  Nothing new here.
  
  Summary:
  Sony released several pieces of AiboWare that are only available in Japan. Based on what a friend of mine could manage to decode, there's nothing here to pique our interest.
  
  Source: http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~hkora11/aibo_2nd-g/kAiboW are.htm (in Japanese)
• More-or-less Complete 210 Hardware Reference
  My Take:
  Note that the 200Mhz (!) CPU uses the MIPS IV instruction set, for which there are no shortage of compilers. We may be in luck yet! (Of course, we might have to replace the current flash ROM with a custom one to develop that luck, but based on other readings, there seems to be very little code in the flash ROM and a heck of a lot of JPEGs of the development team.) You want to read this page.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/210/hardware.htm
• Brain Surgery: a Tool for Editing AiboLife
  My Take:
  An excellent tool, but not very applicable to our particular challenge. Nonetheless, a useful resource of which to be aware.
  
  Summary:
  Basically, Brain Surgery allows users to view and edit the data Aibo "feels". What does this mean? You can abuse your Aibo, and fix it yourself--no Sony required.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/2or3/browser.htm

• Site Gutted by Sony based on DMCA
  My Take:
  This site is great. I think this is exactly what we need. The only thing that really got removed per the story referenced below is "virgin" copies of Aibo-Life, because everything you could possibly want, and more, is available, including "RCodePlus", which appears to be a utility for writing and transferring RCode ("Plus" some aibohack.com extensions) to your Aibo.
  
  Summary:
  http://www.aibohack.com had much of its content removed because it built on Sony's AiboWare, but added new features.
  Among its programs:
  AiboScope: Wirelessly transmits images from robot's camera to a computer
  Disco Aibo: Execute a programmable dance when Aibo hears a certain song.
  Brainbo: Uses voice-recognition. When Aibo hears a phrase, Aibo selects an appropriate response and "says" it.
  
  Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000086726nov01. story?coll=la-headlines (old)
  http://www.latimes.com/search/lat_all.jsp?Query=Ai bo (new, needs registration)
• AIBO Uses Copy-Protection on its Memory Sticks
  My Take:
  While it would probably be trivial to overcome Sony's copy-protection algorithms, it's not worth the bother. $35 for a PMS (Programmable Memory Stick) is money well spent, and if all the code consists of is bootstrapping into the WLAN, we'd only need one for each 'bot.
  
  Summary:
  Sony makes red/pink memory sticks specifically for the Aibo. They contain copy-protection code that means that you can't copy their programs from one stick to another (unless, of course, the second one already had that program installed).
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/123/format.htm
• Japan-Only AiboWare Releases
  My Take:
  Nothing new here.
  
  Summary:
  Sony released several pieces of AiboWare that are only available in Japan. Based on what a friend of mine could manage to decode, there's nothing here to pique our interest.
  
  Source: http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~hkora11/aibo_2nd-g/kAiboW are.htm (in Japanese)
• More-or-less Complete 210 Hardware Reference
  My Take:
  Note that the 200Mhz (!) CPU uses the MIPS IV instruction set, for which there are no shortage of compilers. We may be in luck yet! (Of course, we might have to replace the current flash ROM with a custom one to develop that luck, but based on other readings, there seems to be very little code in the flash ROM and a heck of a lot of JPEGs of the development team.) You want to read this page.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/210/hardware.htm
• Brain Surgery: a Tool for Editing AiboLife
  My Take:
  An excellent tool, but not very applicable to our particular challenge. Nonetheless, a useful resource of which to be aware.
  
  Summary:
  Basically, Brain Surgery allows users to view and edit the data Aibo "feels". What does this mean? You can abuse your Aibo, and fix it yourself--no Sony required.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/2or3/browser.htm

• Site Gutted by Sony based on DMCA
  My Take:
  This site is great. I think this is exactly what we need. The only thing that really got removed per the story referenced below is "virgin" copies of Aibo-Life, because everything you could possibly want, and more, is available, including "RCodePlus", which appears to be a utility for writing and transferring RCode ("Plus" some aibohack.com extensions) to your Aibo.
  
  Summary:
  http://www.aibohack.com had much of its content removed because it built on Sony's AiboWare, but added new features.
  Among its programs:
  AiboScope: Wirelessly transmits images from robot's camera to a computer
  Disco Aibo: Execute a programmable dance when Aibo hears a certain song.
  Brainbo: Uses voice-recognition. When Aibo hears a phrase, Aibo selects an appropriate response and "says" it.
  
  Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000086726nov01. story?coll=la-headlines (old)
  http://www.latimes.com/search/lat_all.jsp?Query=Ai bo (new, needs registration)
• AIBO Uses Copy-Protection on its Memory Sticks
  My Take:
  While it would probably be trivial to overcome Sony's copy-protection algorithms, it's not worth the bother. $35 for a PMS (Programmable Memory Stick) is money well spent, and if all the code consists of is bootstrapping into the WLAN, we'd only need one for each 'bot.
  
  Summary:
  Sony makes red/pink memory sticks specifically for the Aibo. They contain copy-protection code that means that you can't copy their programs from one stick to another (unless, of course, the second one already had that program installed).
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/123/format.htm
• Japan-Only AiboWare Releases
  My Take:
  Nothing new here.
  
  Summary:
  Sony released several pieces of AiboWare that are only available in Japan. Based on what a friend of mine could manage to decode, there's nothing here to pique our interest.
  
  Source: http://www.yk.rim.or.jp/~hkora11/aibo_2nd-g/kAiboW are.htm (in Japanese)
• More-or-less Complete 210 Hardware Reference
  My Take:
  Note that the 200Mhz (!) CPU uses the MIPS IV instruction set, for which there are no shortage of compilers. We may be in luck yet! (Of course, we might have to replace the current flash ROM with a custom one to develop that luck, but based on other readings, there seems to be very little code in the flash ROM and a heck of a lot of JPEGs of the development team.) You want to read this page.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/210/hardware.htm
• Brain Surgery: a Tool for Editing AiboLife
  My Take:
  An excellent tool, but not very applicable to our particular challenge. Nonetheless, a useful resource of which to be aware.
  
  Summary:
  Basically, Brain Surgery allows users to view and edit the data Aibo "feels". What does this mean? You can abuse your Aibo, and fix it yourself--no Sony required.
  
  Source: http://www.aibohack.com/2or3/browser.htm

AiboPet has Bender and Cartman, so Triumph is possible. Cartman is currently only available for the 310 series, but it's just a preview.

AiboPet has Bender and Cartman, so Triumph is possible. Cartman is currently only available for the 310 series, but it's just a preview.

Q: How can I be part of the Legit-i-Mutt©TM program?
A: Well you can't. Legit-i-Mutt©TM is just a bogus name I came up with to explain the situation. Heck, it isn't trademarked, copyrighted, patented or with any legally clout what-so-ever. The real legally binding part is the Sony EULA, and standard copyright law. The EULA stays with the software in its original form or in experimental enhanced form found on this site.

For a real life version of this, check out aibohack.

Its been hacked to access its serial port, add a programmable cartridge, and give it a new o/s! A SDK is scheduled to be released by year's end by the manufacturer, Tiger Electronics, which has stated it will encourage hacking.

Hacking ICybie

I-Cybie Fan Site

Wishbook.com has them for $149.99

I have an AIBO 210, and not only does it have a built in digital camera but it also supports 802.11b wireless networking via an optional PCMCIA card.

Some folks have already written software that allows the AIBO send images in real time of what is "sees" to a PC or Mac.

The new AIBOs (ERS 310 series) have guardog software available (no custom programming required) that lets them watch a certain place or item, taking photos of who ever or what ever moves in its field of vision.

No word on GPS yet, but these things only have about a two hour battery run time, and they don't move that fast; I don't think they can wander that far afield for GPS to be useful.

Some useful links :

AIBO Hackers - lots of free software

Sony Europe AIBO web site