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Interview with The Mind Behind Aibo

Posted by Hemos on from the evil-demon-robot-dog dept.

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.

1 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. NNTUS by A+Big+Gnu+Thrush · · Score: 5

    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.