Slashdot Mirror
Robot Family in Every Home?
cswilly writes: "Yahoo has a story that Sony wants to see a robot animal in every home. I was wondering if Sony has a total cost of ownership argument for these things? Let's see, $2500 for a robot dog + $100 in electricity oven ten years. A real dog costs, say $1/day to feed, lives ten years for $3650 on food, plus $1000 in vet bills. The robot wins hands down." But keeping it in Mom's Robot Oil isn't cheap either...
Most families are already like robot families. White, protestant, republican-voting, heterosexual people with 2.5 kids, SUV and a house in suburbia who also go to church every Sunday - not because they believe but because it's expected.
Theyll be braking the law unless they have a SSSCA certificate soon.
stuff
If I sold flower pots, I'd want one in every home. Preferrably 10. That's a stupid statement on Sony's part, really. Anyone who sells anything wants lots of them everywhere. It's called "selling product to make money". Sheeh.
--jcwren
come and find all things to connected with sex: my sister, brother and my cute robot dog at www.robotdogfamilysex4u.com
;)
A sufficiently sized and well-trained dog is able come up with it's own food if you live in a neighborhood sporting enough cats.
OTOH, the Sony petdogs probably have a setting to disable barking at night.
+++ath0
I got two kittens a couple of weeks ago. I'm already out $500 in vet bills, food, cat toys, litter, etc., etc., etc.
I think my vet gets more per hour than my internist. And no insurance hassles.
Of course, he'll probably pick up robot repair as a sideline if this actually comes off.
InstaPundit! Ahead of the Curve Since 30 Minutes Ago
I will never be a pet-owner, so why would I want a robot-pet-owner? If this is'nt a blaring warningsign, what is?
We are heading for the fall.. Repent!
-By attempting the impossible we can achieve the absurd..
Sony is talking to sell this dog to everyone in China, not US.
I would like to see the same calculation for a real human versus a RealDoll:
http://www.realdoll.com/
Think of how much you would save! We need RealDolls in every home!
Some kind person left a pamphlet on my car, indicating that the world was going to end soon, and that I should beware the mark of the beast. As fate would have it, there is a pretty clear section of this highly informative and exceptionally soul-cleansing literature about robotic animals and their place in God's kingdom. As it turns out, this is clearly mentioned in an obscure and out-of-context verse of the bible. Beware, my friends, the end is near.
Man, what I wouldn't give to know who that kind person was, so that I might track them down and give them a good thanking.
Free artificial Minds for robots are now available from http://mind.sourceforge.net in both MSIE JavaScript (for learning about AI) and in Win32Forth (for implementation in robots). Some tweaking or porting to new languages may be required. Ports have already been launched for Visual Basic and Java.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mind/ is just one of well over three hundred (300) Open Source AI projects on SourceForge, and the AI "Mind" project is unusual in that it is based on awell-developed and highly original linguistic Theory of Mind (see SourceForge/ Mind/ Docs/ Theory of Mind) drawing upon Chomskyan linguistics and the neuronal feature-extraction for which Hubel and Wiesel won their Nobel prize.
Onwards to http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix/vinge/vinge-s ing.html -- Technological Singularity!
(this is where it was described first, long time ago).
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
if i wanted a robot one, i'd just make applet and give it an AI... why bother buying one?
the robot dog is just a "toy", while a real one has life, has feelings, and it's not your "toy", its your "pet". Sometimes it's really hard to treat robots as if they're real things, no matter how smart the AI is... they'd look cool though, but it's just not the real thing
Don't quote me on this.
I do, however, agree with your point about Sunday mass. Far too many people don't know their faith, even if they profess to follow it. Regardless, with that point being your saving grace, I still disagree with everything else you said.
Now, if you would not have made such a blanket statement, I would agree a tad more.
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.
I don't under why people have begun writing the domain under which the page lies after the link (like http://sourceforge.net/projects/mind/ [sourceforge.net]). I mean, what's the friggin point? On any normal browser you can see where the link will take you in the bottom of the window, and even if you couldn't, it would, at least in the example mentioned, be FAIRLY EASY to figure it out. It cannot be to protect people from unwillingly viewing goatse.cx links either, as you could just as well write [sourceforge.net] or whatever after those too, if your intention is to trick people into going there (which it is, exceptionless, if you are linking to that page).
I just don't get it, that's all. Would someone care to explain?
no it wasn't. The idea of robot pets is as old as the term robot itself, which was coined long before PKD was even born.
..which is significantly less than the $2500 put forth in the article. Even the second generation ones were down to $1500, if this price halving keeps up, in about 5 or 6 years, Aibos should be under $30....
I've seen the AIBO being demonstrated and it's surprising how stupid it is and how tiresome it quickly becomes. It is certainly no replacement for a real dog and clearly won't be for a long, long time if ever.
Even assuming it ever does reach that point, are people really willing to spend more for fake dog than they would for a real one? Who would be so emotionally bankrupt?
Interesting article here on sony's attempts to standardize robot architecture. At least they're playing nice with whatever competitors they have.
Thats right folks. Think about it. With enough robot dogs and some typical /. tinkering, we're talking about nightly Battle Bots right in your own living room.
--Dave
Do you actually pay for this site? Do you contribute anything but heaps of troll?
slashdot is provided as a free service, which we should be greatful for.
It also amazes me the amount of time you have taken to write such a lengthy piece of crap.
If you don't like slashdot, DON'T VISIT IT.
If you don't like slashcode, DON'T USE IT.
They just announced a cheaper $800 model that looks a little more "Hello Kitty" than the previous ones, just fyi. Probably to compete with Tiger's i-Cybie that'll be $200. Duane
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
the 2nd gen was geek chiq, the 3rd gen. is pokemon crap
Huh? "Robot" first appeared in "RUR" by Chapek -- IIRC, pets weren't mentioned there ;-)
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
In what way is this relevant to the thread? Far worse than any deficiencies in coding which you may wish to criticize are sociopathic behaviors like your own, in which you disrupt a shared public discussion context with a lengthy off-topic rant. Presumably the Web is "big enough" for you to pursue your crusade elsewhere.
Last night took my girlfriend out to dinner and a movie. Dinner cost 72 dollars and the movie was about 23. This is just a fraction of the expenses I always pay on this girl.
Robot Girlfriend, however, will sit at home until I return from where ever I was having fun...
and the bitch will like it!
Long live Robot Girlfriend!
Haven't they already got a protptype working in this home?
You're using her as bait, Master!
That should be prototype!
I wonder what the average life expectancy of one of these is. Cats can live as long as 20 years in some cases. I'd bet this thing would wear out in about 5 if it was kept operational all day long, as a real animal is.
Yeah, but remember that anchovies are not extinct... yet!
I think his idea is that these people live predicatable lives of quiet desperation.
having flashbacks to "....windows on every desktop"
You're rumbled, my friend...
That probably explains it.
Otherwise, I wouldn't know why a successful
company like Sony wants to be in the pet
business instead of designing some really
useful robots, like a garden keeper,
floor sweeper, etc.
Toon Moene
Or is it because it's a robot dog? Does that make it tech news worthy? If I made hi tech stuff and said "I want a flying car in every garage of every home......yeah, I am a true visionary". What BS. Who give sa rat's ass.
Armitage Shanks would probably go on record saying that they "want a toilet bowl in every home, one day". Now that is true progress.
Acting stupid isn't much fun when there's someone around who knows better
Real dogs tend to scare away robbers, I don't think robot dogs have been found to do that. At least not yet.
There is in fact a good chance that a robot dog attacking a robber might be legally declared a trap, and that could be very bad for the owner, and maybe the maker. A real dog attacking a robber on the other hand tends to get declared as some sort of hero dog (of corse dogs attacking UPS delivery people get put down, which is sad).
Besides real dogs make good pool toys, fake ones die in the water :-)
Imagine if the things were spyware. Put one in every home, give them wireless networking and GPS, and you've have the perfect setup to be watched 24x7. Now THERE'S the stuff of sci-fi stories.
I think Sony would like to see a high priced Sony product in every home.
The word seems older than that. It comes from the czech for slave and has roots to Indo-European words connected to orphan and work.
robot noun
A mechanical device that sometimes resembles a human and is capable of performing a variety of often complex human tasks on command or by being programmed in advance. A machine or device that operates automatically or by remote control. A person who works mechanically without original thought, especially one who responds automatically to the commands of others.
[Czech, from robota, drudgery. See orbh- in Indo-European Roots.]
robotic adjective
Word History: Robot is a word that is both a coinage by an individual person and a borrowing. It has been in English since 1923 when the Czech writer Karel apek's play R.U.R. was translated into English and presented in London and New York. R.U.R., published in 1921, is an abbreviation of Rossum's Universal Robots; robot itself comes from Czech robota, "servitude, forced labor," from rab, "slave." The Slavic root behind robota is orb-, from the Indo-European root *orbh-, referring to separation from one's group or passing out of one sphere of ownership into another. This seems to be the sense that binds together its somewhat diverse group of derivatives, which includes Greek orphanos, "orphan," Latin orbus, "orphaned," and German Erbe, "inheritance," in addition to the Slavic word for slave mentioned above. Czech robota is also similar to another German derivative of this root, namely Arbeit, "work" (its Middle High German form arabeit is even more like the Czech word). Arbeit may be descended from a word that meant "slave labor," and later generalized to just "labor."
"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."
Homer: "What are you going to do. Release the dogs or the bees or the dogs with bees in their mouth so when they bark they shoot bees at you!!"
But why cite things like heterosexuality, and SUVs? I am not gay. Does that mean I live a life of quiet desperation? Absoultely not! That guy's post was nonsense of the highest order. If he is going to formulate an argument for quiet desperation (which, I agree, that is probably what he was hinting at) he should not be so ubiquitous in the way he says things.
Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains.
But that's not an American trait....
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way!
The article said:
> Let's see, $2500 for a robot dog + $100 in
> electricity oven ten years. A real dog costs,
> say $1/day to feed, lives ten years for $3650
> on food, plus $1000 in vet bills. The robot
> wins hands down.
That's not right. Show me an Aibo that can run
for a mile a day at speeds equal to a human
jogging and still have the reserves to play
fetch for an hour afterwards - at the same
time as carrying enough batteries to do that.
It would wear out in six months.
Also, having one robot dog for 10 years is
going to leave you significantly behind the
trendy new robots...you'll need to upgrade.
Figure a new robot every 1 to 2 years and the
equation becomes: $25,000 for 10 years worth
of robot dogs (including replacement motors and
batteries) versus $3650 for the genuine item.
The real dog wins paws-down.
OTOH: No shedding would be worth something.
The cost of buying new shoes when the old ones
get chewed during the first year...the actual
cost of ownership of a real dog is probably more
than $3650.
don't most homes *already* have a robot family?
;)
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
"You're Anya. How is the money doing?"
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
How can you reduce the arguments of which pet is most worth to which one has the lowest maintenace cost.
You think a robot is going to replace mans best friend ?
But real dogs are great in this situation. I've got two, a good sized chocolate lab who can stand on his hind legs and look you dead in the eye, and a mixed breed who looks like the bastard offspring of a coyote and a dingo. Neither is too fond of unknown visitors, so I typically take them with me to the door and hold their collars while they're straining and lunging at the salesperson/Jehovah's Witness/whatever. It's amazing how brief their pitches become...
Also... You can't really blame flatulence on a robot dog.
Random Musings at Rum Smuggler
Robots are just modern versions of the ancient "golem" myth.
At this point, it's kind of hard to claim true originality for very much
Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
well the flip side of it is....it'll be much harder to disguise it in a chinese dish....
There are countless dogs and other perfectly good pets waiting to be 'put to sleep' in Humane Societies all over the country and around the world. Go get the real thing. The Sony bot is just going to wind up turned off in a corner and eventually in a landfill.
$2500 for a robot dog + $100 in electricity oven ten years. A real dog costs, say $1/day to feed, lives ten years for $3650 on food, plus $1000 in vet bills. The robot wins hands down."
Firstly, a dog does not cost $1/day to feed. A medium sized dog would probably cost 25-50 cents at most to feed if you were feeding it dry food.
More importantly, however, since the majority of the costs you attribute to the real dog occur in the future (some of it in the far future) you have to discount those dollars spent in the future to today. For those of you who flunked economics, this means that the value of $100 in 1 year is less than the value of $100 today, the value of $100 2 years from now is less than the value of $100 in 1 year, etc and the decline of value of moneys to be paid/received in the future is exponential. I don't have a calculator handy but you will find that the cost of ownership of a real dog (assuming the already unrealistic cost structure as explained above) is far less than the $4650 you came up with.
Whereas with the Sony dog, almost all the costs of the dog are up front so the present value/cost of the Sony dog is very close to its $2500 sticker price.
...but... like someone else said, their newer model is $850, not $2500 -- *and* has all the features of the more advanced Aibo II, The newer model is cheaper, but not less functional.
Sure, this is all fun and games, but the reality is that they've managed to bring the price down from $2500 to $850 in a year. Who isn't to say there'll be more features and a bigger price drop in the years to come? Heck, a few trips to the vet can easily cost $850..
While I would never replace my dog for a robotic one just yet, I'll probably eat my words in 10 years... The Aibo's in 10 years will probably have hair, be furry, cuddly, and come in various sizes... making it hard to tell if it's real or a robot...
Anyone who has lost a pet would know... When the pet dies, it's gone, but the pain isn't. Now, consider this -- what if you could get a pet that would live forever? That's tempting...
Didn't you see "The 6th day"?
I very much liked the virtual girlfriend in that movie.
(too bad she was female, but that's what the guy choose to purchase.)
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
If they could get up to the marginally useful level, like picking up junk on the floor, customers might leave them on all the time.
They should at least be able to find their recharging station.
The robot dog will be the equivalent of 1984 telescreens for Big Brother.
Sony would be the perfect company to do this since they are a major consumer electronics manufacturer, but also have an interest in protecting their copyrights on both audio and video recordings. None of the other major intellectual property giants have the capability to get a dog installed into every home.
IANAL, but now that the idea has been mentioned in public, is it too late to patent?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
I've always wanted a steel wool sweater.
...from the the terrible secret of SPACE!
The lameness filter is yelling at me, so I might as well type some more stuff.
i like pie
it is good
pie = yum
Microsoft must get their mits into anything that is destined to become ubiqutious. This will probably wake the sleeping giant. Just as most every other innovation has.
If you have mixed breeds in one house will they fight? <whistle> Here, xbox, here boy! <whistle> <whistle> Here PSX. Now get along and don't fight.
--
Very few animals were harmed in the making of this post.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
real dogs are cute and warm. robot dogs are cold and look robotic. The basic thing is I *can't* love a robot dog the same way I love my dog at home. Yeah, real dogs maybe harder to train, they might need to be housebroken, but so are human babies. We all complain how hard it is to raise kids, but do we even think about replacing them with robotic counterparts? I guess a robotic dog could work as a viable "man's best friend" for someone. But, real dogs all the way for me.
Got Freedom?
Thinking?
Can be found at: http://www.robocode.net/
The AI Mind at http://sourceforge.net/projects/mind/ is a vastly more sophisticated neuronal-mind-workalike than the admittedly most impressive Alicebot, and the SourceForge "Mind" performs many of its quasi-neuronal functions very well, e.g.: storage of input in quasi-auditory memory; re-entry of the output of the Mind back into the Mind; associative cross-tagging of concepts, lexicon and auditory engrams; simple Tutorial; troubleshooting with print-out option; etc.
What the AI Mind at SourceForge does not yet do well is keep track of its concepts, because for two years now (since mid-1999) there has been an algorithmic deficiency in the SPREADACT module for the implementation of the theoretically very important process of spreading activation . That problem or final obstacle to True GOFAI is now being cleared up as we switch from harvesting all active concepts simultaneously in sentence-generation, to an interactive generation by syntax interacting word-by-word between the English lexicon and the underlying Psi concepts at the core of the Mind.
Anyone intensely curious about the very latest Mentifex work may visit http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/mindwork.html to see the AI Mind work-in-progress that has not yet been released because it is not yet stable or otherwise ready. (I hate to do potentially important work and not make it somehow available in the event of, say, my getting run over by a truck.)
Both Alicebot (congratulations!) and the Mentifex AI Mind may claim some recognition for being included in the 5 September 2001 release of the official Artificial Intelligence FAQ at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/ai-faq/general/part6/sect ion-5.html under the "Chatbots" heading. I wish the Alicebot team all the success in the world, because we are working towards the same goal. -- Arthur T. Murray.
In a related announcement, God(Tm) announced that he would sue Sony under the DMCA for reverse engineering the BBCE(Bark Bark Crap Eat) protocol.
As we all know, the DMCA, which was introduced to save the software industry and the american way of doing things from communists, geeks and other such forms of life.
God refused to comment on the case of Dimitry Slyrakov because Adobe(Tm) are in negotiations with God to make it impossible to copy/pirate e-books.
-Shaunak.
Why would anyone want one of these?
Lets see.
A real dog will shed all over your furniture to improve its insulation every 2 to 3 months and poop on your carpet to make the prints look better. A robot dog obviously cannot.
A real dog will like your face after you've had a big burger so you'll avoid the embarassment of having food on your face. A robot can only dream of complex tasks like that.
A real dog will bark all night before your semester exam. You never liked that damn subject anyway. Can you beat that?
-Shaunak.
You know if you hate capitalism so much why don't you pick up and move to Havana. Then write back in a year and tell us how you like it. Oh that's right, you won't have the freedom to do that will you. Kids like you really piss me off, thousands of brave men died in order to give you this system of government and our resulting freedoms and you have to spend your time pissing all over them.
You must have never owned a dog. They incur way more vet bills than 1000 dollars. Shots checkups, neutering and god forbid something to go wrong. One of my dogs has already had 2500 dollars worth of doggy dental care.
Douglas Calvert
Actually, the average dog costs its owner $13,500 over the life of the animal... way too much for me to pay.
Smart enough to be rich?
Hey,
Let's see, $2500 for a robot dog + $100 in electricity oven ten years. A real dog costs, say $1/day to feed, lives ten years for $3650 on food, plus $1000 in vet bills. The robot wins hands down."
Let's see, $100 for am inflatable woman + $100 in batteries over 10 years. A real woman costs $45+ to take out for a meal, lives with you ten years for $3,000 in shoes, plus a $1000 engagement ring. The inflatable woman wins hands down.
Except she isn't alive.
Michael
"Goodness me, how unlike the FBI to abuse the trust of the American public." -- The Onion
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
A message from our sponsor
so you get places that rent dogs by the hour so you can walk them to a local patch of greenery. apparently these are quite popular. i mentioned the aibo to japanese acquaintences recently, as in 'what's all this about,' rather than thinking it weird they just seemed to think that it was a good idea and another cool appliance from sony (as are all the small viao lappies, also designed for people with small desks in small apartments).
The robot dog probably doesn't fetch worth a damn, and I doubt that it does a good job licking your face when you get home from work.
Of course, MS will want in on it, too. MSDog(tm) Will have had some "Accesibility Options" added to it and create a seeing-eye dog.
I can see the headlines now. "Blind Man Hit By Bus When Robot Companion 'crashed' While Crossing Street."
In addition, in the spirit of smart tags, MSDog will lead its humble owners into microsoft-funded businesses.
If Sony could come up with a robotic vacumcleaner that could clean my floors then i'm at work i'd sign up today!
Buy an Sony Aibo then recoup your money by letting businesses pay you to bring your Aibo over as a customer draw. "``I've been to Hawaii and sat in a hotel lobby and not spent a dime on entertainment, just had a ball when people stopped to talk to me and watch the two dogs playing on the carpet. They're people magnets.''" -- Yahoo News
"Be thankful you are not my student. You would not get a high grade for such a design
1) Ram something worse than the DMCA down your throat.
2) Bomb Perl Harbor.
Sorry, I won't take those odds!
As a side note, if you try to throw one of those fuckers out, you'll probably have a run in with the Robot arm of the PETA.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The reason that humans and canines have had a 30,000 year symbiotic relationship is that we complement each other perfectly. Humans are strong where canines are weak and vice versa. Our social structures are almost identical. We both operate in packs with extended family structures. The combination is far greater than the separate components. This is one case where "get a life" connotes significance beyond trite banality.
;)
I would like to have one of these as a an exercise tool for my dogs. The boys (Bob & Max) are entirely too lazy. They follow the example of the alpha male in our pack.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."
-- Pablo Picasso
You're curiously insistent on this point. I suggest you do some deep soul searching. I think you may have something important to learn about yourself.
It's nice to see that the robot dog is cheaper, but in terms of bang-for-your-buck, it's a raw deal. When was the last time you marvelled over your dogs ability to track a human figure with its eyes or approach something that moved or made a noise? Can't remember? That's because these are mere tools in the dogs repertoire rather than the full extent of its capabilities.
Sony can call me when the Aibo loves me.
I can see it now, Microsoft pays $10 billion to Sony, to place wireless transmitters and covert programming into the pets.
Then at night, when everyone's asleep, the pets power on, go over to the family PC, and make sure that there is a valid license for Windows on it... if not, it transmits its GPS coordinates to Microsoft and then turns vicious and attacks its human owners...
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
That Robot pets are nothing but a fad everywhere outside Japan, just like those obtrusive personal stereos and Pokemon
If somehow you think evolved enthusiasm is unique, well... digital actions can be created through evolution also.
Oooooh! You cussed. God knows it. You're goin' to Hell.
Prepare to roast, beeyotch!
>Shell out a few bucks to buy a lady a drink or something. It definitely tops humping a stuffed toy.
Word--I'm just imagining the kind of night on the town I could show my lady with five thousand big ones in my pocket. The lovin' I'd get in return would definately beat out anything from a glorified blow-up doll.
How the name does fit, in your case. . .
I think that Sony really misses the point of a pet. Humans like affection and loyalty from an independant entity. A robot will never be independant - it's loyalty is as immaterial as that of your shirt, and its affection is, at best, pre-programmed.
Now, if they could program it to do my laundry, that would be something else...
Wake up - the future is arriving faster than you think.
That's the real issue... with millions of robot pets piling up, the world would wish it went with the biodegradable kind.
Interactive Visual Medical Dictionary
Maybe the English way of 250 years ago but this behaviour is certainly not reflective of contemporary England. On Sunday, more people visit DIY stores in Britain than attend church. It was only a few days ago that the Archbishop of Westminster (head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales) declared that Christianity 'almost vanquished in UK'. There's been similar noises form the Church of England over recent years.
It amazes me when I see the attendance figures for the US, especially when you contrast them against crime figures, or even divorce statistics. People are certainly dedicated... but just because a bunch of people reluctantly turn up at church every Sunday may not actually mean much, it's a great example of herd behaviour and much like Wall Street these days the market is purely motivated by fear (of the unknown).
Don't forget that the dog's warranty expires after 5 years. Also, sometime during these five years, or afterward, sony will replace the dog's limbs. However, what happens when the second set wear out or the dog breaks in some other manner? Right now, there is only one authorized Aibo service center in the USA. How many homes have dogs, and how many will want to replace their dog? Did the submitter read the article, which stated that the new generation of dogs to replace the aibo will only cost $850? Is a robotic dog anything like a real dog, other than it's a fun gadget that imitates a dog. Can you take it running? Can you teach it tricks it's not programmed to do?
OTOH, it would be fun to own one of these if it was affordable and reliable. One for every member of the family (as the article states)? That might even be too far for one of these robots to fetch.
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
...so uh how much attention would a robotic mistress require?
Let's see, $2500 for a robot dog + $100 in electricity oven ten years. A real dog costs, say $1/day to feed, lives ten years for $3650 on food, plus $1000 in vet bills. The robot wins hands down."
My dog is my best friend. He's ecstatic when I get home and brings me a shoe or something as a gift. He protects my home by barking at anybody who walks by. He keeps the fly population going by supplying the yard with tons and tons of crap. Well, the last one may not be so great, but I cannot possibly imagine him being replaced by a robot. No machine can compare to Bruiser, the world's best dog. I'd choose him over most humans.
I realize the author of this comment was probably joking, but would you decide to have a robotic child instead of a real one simply because it was less expensive?
rooooar
You know - set the table before a meal, clear it after, load dishwasher and turn it on.
As if pet adoption centers don't have enough of a backlog now...
So it's gotten to the point where the choice between a robotic dog and a real one is based primarily on cost of ownership?
I pray that we, as a race, never descend to such an emotional low point. How can you place a monetary value on things like loyalty, affection, and playtime? How about saving the life of an animal who might otherwise have been euthanized simply because they were unwanted?
And that doesn't even touch on the added security for yourself, your family, and your house.
My first sight of the Aibos and their ilk turned me cold within seconds wondering "Good Lord, why?!" I see no reason to change that opinion. Sony can take what they want and shove it up their waste-disposal plumbing.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
Cats that are spayed/neutered and returned to their old hunting grounds perform two valuable functions: They kill vermin and their presence prevents other ferals from entering the territory.
Usually organizations that trap "strays" place the cats that are socialized and which have been dumped for adoption. Feral cats are either released into a supervised colony or in the north they are sent to businesses to be working cats.
Eileen H. Kramer/Roanna/ZOIDRubashov
http://zc2zc3.st
Please visit ZOID CITY Community and Community Competition http://www.zc2zc3.st
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say...
Why would anyone want a robotic dog? Can you teach it to bit the mailman? Can i teach it to save peoples lives? Looks to me all that these will be used for is to do stupid tricks and other little things. Why would someone possibly pay 850+ (be realistic here, there will be shipping) for something that you can't do a whole lot with. Hell you can't even eat it to save myself. Now make one that can fetch ducks, bite people, and gerenally do the security thing of attacking intruders and you might have a useful item on your hands. But this looks like just another gimmicy useless thing to come out of Sony.
Will Robodog hang his head out the window of the car leaving a trail of slober on the back window?? Will Robodog dive into the lake to chase fish? Will Robodog charge a animal or person so that you can escape? I know my dog loves me, I doubt my computer cares one way or the other.
Robot cats are the way to go here... they're much cheaper to make, since they only need to be programmed to sit there and ignore you...
You probably do something wrong (which a lot of people tend to do), namely plug in the power supply when your battery is half charged. If your are on battery, use it until you get the warning that battery is nearly empty. If you are impatient, write a little script that writes alot on the disk to drain the batteries.
I do not have laptop experience with LiIon or NiMH batteries, but I heard they don't have the same problems as NiCad batteries. My cellphone has LiIon and it seems that I can recharge it even when no completely empty, but I prefer not to.
I think, with a bit discipline the Aibo batteries could last very long :-)
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Okay, so you'll be paying $1000 to the vet for your dog. And you expect your Aibo to operate flawlessly without any sort of maintenance over a period of 10 years?
I'd think, if you leave you aibo on as often as your dog would be awake, it would have worn through its gears and eveything in about a year.
I can see a VERY big problem here, namely as far as us engineers are concerned. That is, I can see a lot of us engineers having fun by modifying Fido to get more horsepower, be more efficient, and go from zero to mailman in 1.3 seconds.
God help us.
Sure, real pets are nicer, but what about those of us that live in no-pet zones? For many people, a robot pet'd be better than no pet at all. Myself included.
"When I smile, I have a mouth full of teeth; when I frown, I'm not even here."