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Pleo Review - A Toy Robot Triumph?
SkinnyGuy writes "PCMag has one of the first reviews of the new robotic dinosaur. Is it worth $350? I think this reviewer thinks so. 'What most people will have a hard time understanding is that Ugobe's Pleo is one of the most sophisticated personal home entertainment robotic devices on the market today. It easily outshines robot toys from Wow Wee and Hasbro, though both companies offer robots that cost less than half of what Pleo does. Its nearest competitor, the Wow Wee Robopanda, is a good gift for young children, but it's not nearly as adorable, animated, or intelligent as Pleo. (Yes, it can stand up and crawl, but it doesn't look very good doing it.)'"
Be sure and check out this video review of how the Pleo responds to torture...
http://dvice.com/archives/2007/12/pleo_post.php?p=1&cat=undefined
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Thinkgeek has had these for sale for awhile (originally pre-order - currently out-of-stock). They have a pretty decent video hosted on their site. IMO, nothing can ever beat my Teddy Ruxpin..... /tears up
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
Zeno can't get here soon enough for me. :)
Not terribly impressive. But maybe evolution will take care of that.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
I'm all for the advancement of robotics and if that means reaching the general public through consumer devices as a means to an end, then so be it.
However, these "robots" that we keep seeing are entirely pointless and ridiculous. They tend to be at least $300 or $400 and they're nothing more than slightly beefed up versions of the little remote control robot you got under the christmas tree as a little kid that beeped and flashed lights. They do nothing useful, are glitchy and . . . talk about "uncanny valley".
The Pleo seems like something that is briefly amusing, but for $350 I could buy a couple Roombas and they actually perform a useful function other than looking cute.
Are we supposed to be impressed by a goofy looking dino robot, just because it can detect when another pleo is around it and it can sense when someone is petting it versus choking it? How can this even qualify as a "robot"? If you have money to burn and your child is likely to be suckered into the cheap gimmicks that form these types of robots, then I guess go for it. . . . I've seen the pleo in action and if the idea is that you buy one or two of these to substitute for pets, then . . . well - let's just say having a pleo for a pet is like having blow up doll for a girlfriend. Not that I know from personal experience.
PRICE... lets give an example with something we can all relate to (except for the two girls who read /.) Lego. Even the older Lego is going to set you back $20 USD for a motor. 5 motors in a robot invention =~ $100 USD. For accurate and simplified control, it is likely that some kind of R/C hobby servo, or a derivative at cheaper cost is used. The price of that does not drop sharply over time due to volume purchases. A digital servo would double the costs roughly per motor. The parts to make cute little animal robots are NOT cheap, and I'm only talking about low end parts here. It amuses me at times to think that I have some simplistic robots at home (made of Lego) that if bought piece by piece, would cost on the order of about $450 ~ $500.
If you ask any robotics hobbyist, $350 USD for a completed and programmed robot.. well, that's a good price. I don't see the price point dropping much if you are going to have a really functional robotic toy thingy animal friend.
Warning: Some (well all) robotics hobbyists will value the store bought robotic toy on how useful it is once they get it home and disassemble it to use in their own creations. If it is a veritable horn of plenty of usable sensors and parts... yeah $350 is a great price. You may have to guide their scope on value in the conversation.
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A robot trumph? So, what you're trying to say is...
This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here: huge success.
I really can't express my satisfaction.
This one would probably give the whole family nightmares... http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x25zzd_babyrobot-made-in-japan_news
That's okay. The toy will also have more fun playing with the box than it will playing with your kid.
Well, the robotpanda is 150 dollars, which is less than half of the asking price of the pleo. The robopanda, like the rest of the toys from that company are pretty simplistic and fun. I think this design is a better idea than the pleo/aibo idea of a super complex computer driven "pet simulator" that costs a lot more than people are willing to spend on the gimmick.
I'd rather be able to buy a toy robot I can say "read me a bedtime story" than one that has realistic moods and realitic poops. I understand the popularity of the furby, but that was mostly to the toddler to pre-5th grade crowd. Not to mention the price point on the furby was pretty good too.
I think people want something that actually does something. If someone asks me what my pet robot does I cuold say "well he reads me a story if I ask. Or he reads me my email if I ask." Not "he simulates the moods of a biological pet." I think the tomogatchi school of robotics is pretty dead in the consumer world. The pleo is a nice gimmick, but thats all it is. At that price its a market failure from the get-go. I could get a roomba and a robopanda for that price.
No, silly woman, I was fishing for a "you insensitive clod" comment... you must be new here
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There is RealDoll.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
It doesn't seem like their development kit (which I can't even find an official reference to on their website) can do much. That makes it useless to people that want to do more than play with it until someone finds a way to crack it to run custom code.
But compared to the cost of owning a real pet, a $350 one time fee isn't bad at all.
We just bought a rabbit, and in the first year of ownership I'm sure we'll spend more than $350. We got out of the pet store for ~$100 with a cage and a starter kit, then spent about another ~$100 on a couple months worth of bedding, food and treats. When you add on the the ~$150 we'll have to spend to neuter the thing, we're already at the price of the Pleo for less than a year of about the easiest-to-care for cuddleable pet you can get.
Even the Pleo won't be quite the same as a rabbit, but the Pleo won't pee under the piano. At least, the Pleo 1.0 won't pee under the piano.
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
$350 would sustain a family in sub-Saharan Africa for 3 years...
Not if they chose to blow it all at once on a Pleo.