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Interview with The Mind Behind Aibo
Ant sent us an interesting interview with the man behind the Aibo, Dr. Toshitada Doi. He heads the Digital Creatures Lab at Sony, talks about the history of the Aibo, and where he sees the future of pets going. Speaking as a person who shares his office with an Aibo I think they're neat, but there's still a lot of work to be done before they really break into the mainstream.
Wow. Talk about a short article. I was really hoping for more from that one! Anyone have some really good links to articles, interviews, etc. concerning Aibo, and it's creators?
;-)
Everything I have seen so far has been very interesting - including a nice article concerning how attached to an Aibo someone really can become (the writer had just sent his Aibo back to have it's legs fixed). I want more! (And I want the $2500 to blow on an Aibo, instead of my house or my computer hardware
Davis Ray Sickmon, Jr - looking for something to read? Check out my three free novels at MidnightRyder.org
And I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob.
Dude, get a life. You're not any cooler than anybody else because you just happen to be the first person to see a new slashdot story. All it means is either you had good timing, or you have so little of a life, that you sit and hit reload constantly, just waiting for that new story to pop up.
Is there some secret meeting of the people who get first posts? Where "Doodz, I have three thousand, five hundred ninety seven first posts! I rool!" is a commonly overheard phraze? (Sorry, I can't write in that stupid replace the letters with number and symbols crap you freaks use, so I'm not even going to try.)
Sorry, rant mode off. I just couldn't take it anymore. Yes, I know my comment is off topic as well, but at least I'm willing to accept my karma hit. Unlike ButtF*@% here.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
..how do you train it to get your newspaper from the newsagents ?
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
I still see no use for an electronic dog, even though their sophistication is simply amazing. I never thought I'd see machines playing soccer for about 50 more years.
During a demonstration of the dog here at CNET, we found ourselves involuntarily talking to the robot like we would to a real dog
Last time I checked, talking to a robot isn't anymore retarded than talking to a pet. It's actually equally fscking retarded.
Moderate me down ...
--
Well, I put it on my Christmas Wish List.
It is just too expensive right now. I am curious if anyone on this site will actually get one. I would love to know how they work.
I wonder how autonomous they really are.
Right now, I do not have the time or location for a real pet. One that does not eat, shed and shit sounds pretty good to me. Hopefully I could do a better job of keeping an AIBO alive than my plants.
The idea of raising an abused and unloved AIBO that runs for its life at the site of a pink ball also makes me laugh. Sorry.
when they attack the postman delivering the first post.
http://www.jonmasters.org/
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The interview got it's numbers wrong. Only 15,000 have been sold, not 150,000.
penguinicide... when jumping out a window just won't do.
One important fact the article missed, is that the target market for these pets is not necessarily the US. Pets are far more rare and expensive in Japan. Even on a modest income, I could afford acres of land in (rural) America, and stock that land with cheap dogs. In Japan, this would not be possible.
I heard a news story on NPR ( sorry, no link ) that talked about a service that let you rent a dog for the afternoon. You didn't get to take it anywhere, you just walked it around the provided area, but you got to pick the dog you wanted.
Not to say that Americans won't buy this. I would love one, but in Japan, it may actually be a far more practical solution.
The dog uses the Aperios real-time operating system. More information is available on the Sony site.
I thought it was particularly interesting that it is IPv6 ready. Not many people can claim that for their pets! :-)
Hi!
However, I think they're going completely the wrong way about it, to be honest. The more you pre-program, the more rigid and stupid the machine is going to be.
There's really no need to hardcode more than the absolute basics. Anything & everything else could (and should) be learned, with the ability for the software to adapt as necessary.
No, we're not talking Terminator or HAL-9000 technology here. A large, FAST neural net isn't difficult to code. Place the software in virtual reality, for a while (simulate as much time as you like), then dump into the robot's computer. Not that complicated to do.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
In the context of the ongoing question of how the internet/technology growth foils closeness and communication of people, how does getting programmable robot dogs fit into this? Not enough falseness on the net, so we bring it into our homes?
But surely that's an overreaction, it's just another hobby, albeit like paying for all of the food your dog will eat in a decade up front...
I just have to wonder how much wonder that there is present in the real, natural world, we're slowly losing contact in our growing fascatination (and growing market ability to be more so with more product lines) with the technological wonders around us...
Blah.
Listen to me Peter, I want this bench. You go sit on that bench over there, and if you're good I'll tell you the rest of
Hi!
This reminds me of Philip K Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. In the future, animals were so rare, that everyone had synthetic pets. Only the rich could afford real pets...
A friend of mine works in a research lab of an educational institution. They got one of these things and I got to play with it for a while.
;) it stands right back up. This one will put one paw in the air as if waving, it stretches and sits and lies down. I will react to people and things in it's environment, although we couldn't get it to play with it's little pink ball. Of course, as the FAQ's for the dog say... "Q: AIBO won't play with his pink ball. A: Maybe AIBO doesn't *want* to play with his pink ball."
;)
My friend told me that they had spent considerable time training the thing to walk and to react by praising (pressing and holding the large button on it's head) it when it did something right or desirable and punishing (tapping the same button) it when it did something undesired.
It walks and if it falls over (or is pushed
It appears to have some level of intelligence and does appear to learn as it goes. If money were no object, I would love to have one of these. It's fun. When you don't want to play with it, you don't have to feel guilty. And it's a wonderful chick magnet.
The next version will be even cooler as when it's battery begins to run down, it will seek and go to it's charging base to recharge itself.
It's an interesting toy for now, but too expensive. I do agree that 10 to 20 years from now, this will be very common in peoples homes.
And just think, Asimov was right again...
Russ
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. - George Orwell or George Bush?
CmdrTaco and/or Hemos could write an essay about life with an AIBO. I'm sure that between the two of you, there are plenty of amusing stories accumulated already...
Don't throw your computer out the window, throw the Windows out of your computer!
After the (apparent) commercial success of the Furby and the AIBO, what do you see as the future of commercial autonomous robotics?
The Kulturwehrmacht
Finding God in a Dog
If this is the man behind the AIBO, then what is he doing back there?
Hey - leave that thing alone, GET OFF!
Hotnutz.com
Since when does an "interview" article consist of a single one-sentence quote from the interviewee? Couching that one tiny quote within a few obvious, well-known or incorrect facts does not help. Aibo is a fantastic new development; surely the developer had many interesting things to say about it!
Starting to drift off topic here, but you mentioned one of my favorite books...
One added element in DADOES, it was considered bad citizenship not to own a live animal. It was everyone's duty to own and care for animals, but average people could not afford anything larger than small pets. To prove their citizenship and empathy (read: humanity) people displayed fake animals on the roofs of their houses.
This book is so good it makes me want to cry.
I have watched the whole AIBO thing with interest,
especially when comparing real dogs to AIBO.
Everyone forgot one thing...a real dog shows geniuine affection for its owner (assuming your not a cruel abusing bastard). Some pet owners, myself included, would say our dogs love us, and we love them, just like any other family member.
AIBO is a neat toy, but when the day comes that robotic dogs, or people for that matter, have feelings, then what do we do? Or if their simulated intelligence begins to challenge our own?
"You want me to chase this stupid little pink ball? I dont think so. How bout you go get the oil can and the battery charger for me, or I'll break you neck".
Heh.
"I know what love is Jenny"
Does anyone wonder if he looks like Mr. Roboto from that STYX video? (Apologies to anyone under 30 who doesn't get it) ;)
Do really dense people warp space more than others?
That would be perfect. You'd have to give him that antenae thing he has though, and the laser weapon. The PBS station here in Albuquerque is showing the episodes with the 1st Romana right now and I'm having all kinds of good dreams about her and the privacy of the Tardis. :)
I know this will get moderated down but my karma can take it and I needed my geek fix for the day.
I'd like to see the Cyberlife people team up with the Sony people and put their seriously advance AI code into a hardware device. (Wow, how about a "real live" Norn? That would be awesome. They'd just have to have a longer lifespan than that in the game - about 8 hours.
I think the most interesting aspect of the Cyberlife technology is the synthesis of a "biophysical" system in software - they have code to simulate digestive, circulatory, immunological systems, etc, completely outside of the neural network that makes up their cognitive system.
If you could marry that concept with hardware to emulate it (i.e. the battery is getting low so the feedback to the brain is "I'm hungry!") I bet you could come up with some seriously complicated and complex emergent behaviours.
-=-=-=-=-
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My mom's going to kick you in the face!
"it's a pill that gives worms to ex-girlfiends!!
You just don't get it..."
sorry.... couldn't resist
(KITH - Brain Candy)
Told you so.
Weblogging Considered Harmful:
'nuf said
They show off their photos, discuss various problems, remark about the AI, etc..
The website is called Aibonet.
The Aibo is THE girl magnet for geeks. I've seen a crowd of women cooing over an Aibo that some guy owned. ;)
Aibo does fetch...just not sticks
Call on God, but row AWAY from the rocks!
An interview with the man inside the AIBO?
I don't buy it. Admittedly I believed the
little people inside the TV thing until I was
twelve, but I caught on eventually. I'm sure
there's just computers and stuff in there.
~yair
Oops. Never mind. Reading is hard.
What this dog really needs is some nice fake dog fur instead of a silver plastic body. Believe me, it will make a big difference to kids. They'll like playing with the "doggie" instead of the "robot doggie."
Certainly I interprete affection from my pet cat's
:) I wonder what kind of
actions, but I don't really know what's going
on inside his head. I don't know how he's
thinking, or if anything even remotely like
emotions are happening inside the complex flesh
computer that's his brain. It's not like it really
matters to me that I don't understand my cat --
I often interpret some *very* human motivations to
my cat that almost certainly arn't really there,
and it doesn't really bother me.
That being said, I imagine one of the problems
with AIBO would be that it's not warm. One of the
things that makes it hard to snuggle with my
Iguanas is that they're cold-blooded, and so
very often they're not pleasant to snuggle with
because all the warmth goes from me to them. My
cat is a lot more pleasant to snuggle with because
he's warm on his own
heat tolerances could be designed into an AIBO to
allow it to have a preferred warmer than room
temperature body..
For every problem, there is at least one solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.
I want a robot that doesn't have an identity crisis.... A robot that tries to be a robot. You know... like R2D2. If I wanted a dog, I'd buy a dog and he'd do a hell'uv'a better job than a robot trying to be a dog. I think they should take Abio's brain and put it in a more useful and ubiquitous body.
Most dogs develop and understanding of several hundred words as they mature. Not Shakespeare by any means, but quite an accomplishment anyways.
I am sure the "first post" couldn't boast such a grasp of the English (or any other) language.
"there's a big difference between kneeling down, and bending over" - FZ
'cos you've obviously learned nothing from the other animals we share this planet with. Get back in ur box and keep ur beak shut
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
There are 15,000 different sets of the AIBO AI being taught how to interact with a human environment. One of the neatest things I've come across reading about how people using their AIBOs was from aibosite.com's FAQ. Apparently some AIBO users have found their AIBOs have developed rudimentary face-recognition, even though Sony claims that no such software was installed in untrained AIBOs.
This might light up some people's Big Brother radars, but what if those 15,000 trained AIBOs downloaded the product of their training into a central database at which someone(probably Sony, but what are the possibilities of GPLing the training you've given your AIBO?) can sort through the best of the acquired programs and redistribute them to new AIBO purchasers? With so many individuals constantly training(ie, improving the software of) their AIBOs, wouldn't the software increase dramatically?
FIRST POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I understand that the Chief Scientist of USA STRICOM is looking at using Aibos for mine hunting. STRICOM has a huge effort in utilizing entertainment technology for defense purposes and this is one project they are looking at for the new USC Institute for Creative Technologies!
The translation of "aibo" (romaji Japanese), according to Jeffrey's J/E Dictionary defines what qualities we all admire in a real dog: /. it really makes you think : ) At least, it should...
-cherish the memory of; yearn for
-love; attachment; adoration
-companion
-partner; pal; accomplice
Now, this may seem OT to some of you, but I read through various postings here, saying all the Aibo lacks dramatically is the ability to love it's owner back, like a real dog. I just happened to look up the name...and seeing these definitions in correspondance with what was said here on
Mmm...Sony.
And yes, an Aibo is a great chick magnet. We are known for our expensive tastes ^-^
miyax
whet -- to sharpen.
That article "whet" your appetite.
The internet has done more to diminish the english language than a gaggle of mall-walking teens.
WHERE IS THE CURRENT SLASHDOT SOURCE CODE? ARE WE FOR OPEN SOURCE OR NOT?
Sony needs to reprogram my girlfriend...
That code is ancient! WE WANT THE CURRENT SLASHDOT CODE!!