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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.
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.
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?
Here are a few links that you might find interesting. Xrays of the dog. http://www.nnc.ne.jp/~as212/aibo/x-p.html Aibo disassembled. http://www.aibosite.com/index-s.html Aibo taken apart. (in japanese) http://web.kyoto-inet.or.j p/people/nktks/TEMP1/menu1.htm Robotic Cat - (evolved neural net) http://www.genobyte.com/robokoneko.html
penguinicide... when jumping out a window just won't do.
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!
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.