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Sony's AIBO robot Sold Out
An Anonymous Coward writes "Sony's AIBO entertainment
robot sold out in Japan
in 20 minutes. They sold 3000 units; that's more than
2 units sold per second!" Sony has been advertising this
thing on Slashdot actually so I've browsed the site pretty
extensively. I just wish I had the cash to fork out for
one of these puppies (rimshot). They look awesome, although
I think I want a version that can climb stairs...
guess you'll have to make sure yr pc is oilproof if yr robot-dog cocks a leg on it.
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
they are wanting real money for those hampsters!
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
I checked out the two that appeared. The one for $4,500 is closed, and cheaper one is bid up to $2,550.
What's odd about this is that I believe you can still get one direct from Sony. The close-out applies to Japan only.
D
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Well it appears to be a pretty cute pup but I'd much rather half a dozen boxes of MindStorms Lego than a metal mutt. Maybe someone ought to sucker MIT into developing a fluffy friend that doesn't break the bank.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Now, do the real ones have that robot-with-no-skin look the prototype has? ;)
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kernel: lp0: using parport0 (polling).
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kernel: lp0 out of paper
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perl -e'$_=shift;die eval' '"$^X $0\047\$_=shift;die eval\047 \047$_\047"' at -e line 1.
You know what I mean. ;P
Thanks for the info. I needed to download Kanji support anyway. I find it interesting that most of the good robotic journals are in Japanese.
The thing really looks like a mechwarrior to me.
Are they trying to give us a clue?
Add a vase and then it will be just as complex as a Volkswagen.
"One of God's own creations, some kind of high powered mutant. Too weird to live and too rare to die"
Just wait til you see what Sony is gonna charge for the first generation SexBot!
Maybe you should to go ahead and volunteer now for their beta-testing program.
Geeky modern art T-shirts
I think it'll be several decades until someone with a roach-infested home can afford a household robot. A self-portable vacuum *would* be cool, though.
Yeah, I think so. I liked its older stuff better than its new stuff.
I was just wondering whether there are quicktime
or MPEG movies or whatever somewhere of the
dog walking about?
--Sander.
I'm not sure I understand the appeal of these things. It's a chunk of metal that moves around, has a small number of mildly interactive modes of operation, and a level of complexity that stands just below that of a Volkswagen.
At least, that's how it seems to me: an advanced version of Little Baby Walkaround toys. Yes, it's golly-gee neat, but is it worth money?
So, my question is what are folks finding appealing about this product? The fact that it is popular at all seems highly counterintuitive to me, so much so that I have to assume I'm missing something here.
So what's the big deal?
Sit. Fetch. Compile my new kernel. Good Boy! (throws a doggie treat)
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
I've also heard they plan on selling a "developer box" for even more $$$ that will let you actually program the thing (maybe only a special version of the thing?) So unfortunately, teaching it to compile your kernel is out.
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kernel: lp0: using parport0 (polling).
kernel: lp0 off-line
kernel: lp0 out of paper
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perl -e'$_=shift;die eval' '"$^X $0\047\$_=shift;die eval\047 \047$_\047"' at -e line 1.
Just as a matter of curiousity... where, exactly, in this pooch do you shove the memory stick?
I think that the joy of this robot is something that is going to be different for each and every person. For me, I would love to sit and watch it's programming continue to adapt to living in my house. The thought of an actual self-learning robot appeals to me so much that I could justify the expense. Of course, I'm weird, too.
I can't see this being the ideal "toy" for a child, as a young one couldn't appreciate it on the level at which it deserves. Maybe when they become mainstream and cheaper I'll be able to change my mind, but for now they are simply one of two things: 1) Status Symbol, or 2) Geek Toy.
And I say to that - Why not?
// The truth attends to itself.
it says that most of them were probably purchased by Sony competitors, or by others in the electronics field just to see how Sony made this thing work. I bet Gates has one.
Last Christmas, I wandered over to my favourite Christmas Lights area to check out the decorations. One of the people there had a little plastic robot that his son was playing with. He was a really nice guy, so I hung out around his house for a while, checking out the robot. It couldn't do much sophisticated - it could walk around, say what you told it to via the remote control, and flash a few lights. I can tell you that his son just ate it up.
I think the thing cost about $ 100. Aibo costs twenty times what the robot did, but it's capable of independent behaviour of some kind. It also looks like it's made out of considerably more solid materials.
I'd be a little wary of the value for money proposition. My understanding is that kids get bored with toys pretty fast, and it's an awfully expensive toy. When we get the kind of mania that sells out a toy in seconds, especially something this expensive, I think there are factors more than sheer merit driving the phenomenon. Obviously, Sony's marketing is brilliant, but I doubt this has the long-term potential a $2,000 toy should.
I echo the thoughts of a fellow slashdotter in this thread - I'd blow $2,000 on a comprehensive Lego Mindstorms set and see what my kid (if I had one) could create, instead of getting this pre-packaged temptation. I think it would create a lot more enjoyment.
D
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btw, it's "Aperios" not "Apertos".
What happens when these things eventually pass a Turing test for dogs? What will the humain society have to say about rebooting your ABIO?
Eventually, even if it doesn't end up in a human form, somebody is going to build a near-human level intelligence robot. If it can pass or come close to passing the Turing test, we can't very well subject it to ownership or forced labor. Most industrial societies have protection against abuse of animals and the mentally handicapped, so to be consistant we would have to protect those robots in the same way.
Just a thought....
This just proves there are at least 3000 people in Japan who have waaaaay too much time and money.
. . . there's always the upcoming Yoda (R) Furby (R).
I liked the prototype better. Instead of looking like a freaky "egyptian" dog (no offense meant, egyptians!), it looked more like a futuristic monkey. Way better looking.
I'd argue about what the heck Sony was thinking, but since they sold out of the little buggers, it would be a moot point.
- LoTonah
Not funny:
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http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt
It really is scary that Sony can put out just about anything on the market and it will sell.
Reminds me of another company, called M$.
Being big enough today seems to mean that you can manufacture just about any shit you can come up with because there are always some intelectually challenged people out there willing to pay for whatever these big companies can shove out.
I know it is called free market but it scares me never the less.
Life is a lie with foundations in bullshit !
Yeah the dog is neat and all... but where's my sex bot, dammit!
No, it runs a proprietary OS, designed for real-time operation. Actually, the doggie has a number of parallel processors running -
* A CognaChrome vision system - runs on some version of 680x0 chip, probably a specialized
embedded one. The last CognaChrome I played with
ran on a custom 68020 board - but Sony must have
done something extra special with it.
What is a CognaChrome? It's a fairly simple but very effective vision system originally from MIT. Basically, it thresholds the image to extract blobs of color, and then it returns the position of the biggest blob. I played around with an earlier version CognaChrome, it's relatively easy to work with and VERY FAST. The first version only recognized one color. I believe the doggies recognize 3 or 4, which largely depends on the processor speed. But hell, it's probably the only really workable real-time computer vision system right now!
* One or more motion control processors, doing nothing but servo control. This puppy has 3 servos per leg (to get 3 degrees of freedom), two to hold its head up (or down, or to the side), and one for the tail. That's a lot of PID loops to keep track of.
* a central processor to run the "intelligence" and command the rest of the system. Last time I heard, it was a custom version of the MIPS
R4000 chip (same as PlayStation?).
The doggies are very programmable, unless Sony put some deliberate obfuscations in. I've seen the "alpha-doggie" up close, it actually had an
Ethernet card hooked up to it so you could telnet
to it and tweak parameters. Of course, they probably removed that for the commercial version.
It's too bad I'm not doing robotics anymore, if I stayed at my last job, I probably would have had one!
mAx
--> Any fool can criticize - and many do --
I wish Slashdot could attact more Linux friendly advertizing. It seemed like one of the first ads when /. start taking on ad banners was for Surfree. To this day, Surfree seems to be one of the only ISPs that refuses to put a link on their support page to an unoffical web page providing instruction on how to take advantage of their services from Linux. Also, Surfree refuses to admit any problem is on their end until the problem has been replicated in a "supported" OS. And things haven't improved on the /. ad banners either. The SDK for the AIBO memory strip is not available for Linux. Also, it sounds like there isn't enough of the SDK source code available to make porting the SDK to Linux an option either. If Slashdot doesn't clean up the ads to promote products that I can use and take FULL advantage of then I will simply ignore and stop clicking on the /. ads.
"We'll let you beta-test our products if you pay us $15 per hour."
hehehe
When I first saw the thing, I was amazed. It was obvious that the thing had limited abilities and intellence, but I imagined that with a little work, some really neat things could be done with it. I personally would just take the exoskeleton and redo the whole insides. With a bit more power and a few more sensors, this thing could be very adaptabile.
I hear that the thing can stand on two legs, but I doubt it could walk that way. Are there any cases where a robot has accomplished bi-pedal motion? I have never been able to accompish it in my limited experence, due to the way we humans shift our center of gravity. I suspect that would be the source of the "stair" problem too.
Its neat and I've followed it since I saw what I believe was an early beta here in Melbourne at some trade show or other last year.
At college here theres a project for robo-soccer and its just funny to compare how primiteve our stuff is compared to this.
Uni homepage - http://www.cse.rmit.edu.au search for robo-soccer or sometihng of the sort.
Later,
denmaster
I'd prefer a robot that could serve drinks, vacuum, and maybe even kill roaches.
It _is_ sold out in America:
http://www.world.sony.com/robot/
"The first version only recognized one color. I believe the doggies recognize 3 or 4, which largely depends on the processor speed."
This thing is already better than some tiny little annoying mutts in many ways. Dogs only see in black-and-white. This one is able to distinguish color. Don't have to clean up after this one, and it doesn't destroy your granny's 17th century victorian rugs.
It runs Apertos, a reflective operating
system based on an eclectic Japanese dialect of Lisp.
You can find one article in
Advances in Object-Oriented Metalevel Architectures and Reflection, as well as some other references
at the awfully outdated Apertos home page.
BTW, It's not the first thing running on Apertos,
some Sony people I met told me they have some set-top boxes using it, but they never tell (well,
obviously they do when you surprise them asking about such kind of thing).
Damm. Just the kind of excuse I was looking for. Now I'll _really_ have to buy this puppy.
Aperios is the `productized' name, and as
usual marketroid stuff, it does not make much sense.
Apertos is obviously a much better name.
Sony isn't the typical /. advertisor, and the banner add came soon after the original /. article on the bot, so I wonder if the slashdot effect itself atracts advertisers:
"We sudenly got a lot of hits from some place called slashdot, that had a story about out product. Hey, the sell banner adds, and their readers are obviously interested in our product, so lets advertise there!"
That'd be nice.
www.realdoll.com makes something similar to what a sexbot will probably be. also, www.realhamster.com is worth a look, its pretty funny in that I bugger hamsters sort of way.
Robot slaves would be cool, but only if A.)They had a limited intelligence and B.) were programmed with a variation of Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics. Otherwise we might end up with something very much like Blade Runner's Replicants or the Boomers in Bubblegum Crisis; either situation would be very bad.
I wonder when one will show up on eBay....