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.

Comments

NNTUS

[A Big Gnu Thrush]

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.

Old news?

[cybaea]

It is good to see that Sony have finally delivered on what they have been talking about for so long. This year-old techweb story give a very good background to the project, and discusses some of the more interesting design decisions, including the Aperios Real-Time OS.

I got to play with one...

[r2ravens]

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.

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 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."

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

How about an AIBO feature article?

[dieMSdie]

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...