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Teach An Old Aibo New Tricks

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the sit-up-and-beg-for-batteries dept.

dipfan writes "After expending much energy trying to stop hackers from tinkering with its Aibo robot dog, Sony has finally realised it's not worth the effort and has decided to start giving away a 'non-commercial' developers kit. The kit is called OPEN-R SDK, which allows Aibo be programmed in C++, as part of Sony's efforts to promote its (so-called) OPEN-R architecture for robotic entertainment. Anyway, the really neat thing is that you can reprogram your Aibo to meow."

6 of 198 comments (clear)

  1. Obviously, the learned from Lego by burgburgburg · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Lego set a great example, and received the rewards of respecting the community that buys/programs their product. Sony was scared, but they've learned. Good. Maybe more can.

  2. Re:Its about freaking time... by RatOmeter · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, but I wonder what/who convinced Sony? They looked to me like they were on the same road to pig-headed, "we know what you need better than you do" attitude that the rest of the entertainment & music establishments exhibit.

    Is it possible that /. and similar, thru negative feedback, had a positive effect on the Sony way?

    I am admittedly geeky, that's why I hang out here; but it seemed pretty obvious to me from the beginning that alienating an entire consumer sub-culture would be bad for business. Especially when members of that sub-culture are more likely to be able to afford a pricy toy like Aibo.

    All in all, I'm glad they've opened it up some. Now, if I can just convince my wife to let me buy an expensive toy dog...

  3. $1000 for a dog? by PoiBoy · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The less expensive dog is $999 according to their online store.

    Instead, you could go to your local humane society and get a REAL dog for well under $100, and the remaining $900 would be more than enough for at least a couple years' food and vet check-ups. They're more fun, too, and programmable!

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    Sig (appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars)
  4. Re:Dude! by Teutates · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They were on the beach around a camp fire smoking a pipe, Ogre said it. Give me my points damnit!

  5. Re:This has major implications... by Kredal · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Forget cyber beastiality pr0n... what about taking apart the Aibo, and putting the moving components into a RealDoll?

    You could program (her/it) to do strange and wonderful things...

    --
    Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
  6. Uh.. by SoVeryWrong · · Score: 2, Insightful

    14. Send and get data using Wireless LAN (TCP/IP)

    Am I the only one who noticed this? I wonder how long it'll take for some ambitious hacker to make a portable webserver, a firewall that barks, or in a more malicious context, an adorable little password cracker that does tricks for the sysadmin while it's downloading sensitive data?