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mech422

Aibo is coming back? I haven't seen one in like 20 years ...

I thought Sony stopped making them.

First released in 1999 [1]! Wow..time flies

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIBO

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They had one at the Sony experience center in NYC, so I was able to play with one. Far more advanced than the 20 year old ones. Covered in touch sensors, they are much more lifelike and natural acting than I expected. My favourite was the tricks, you make your hand into a gun and say play dead. And ha, I almost died laughing. Wonderful thing, but it is limited export as it uses a cellular plan in only a handful of countries. It is very expensive, it can’t jump, but I still want one.

heh - they are cute...And after watching mini-cheetahs do backflips, the no jumping thing can seem limited.

Supposedly we'll be seeing some chinese mini-cheetah clones soon at around $2k. That would make them quite a bit cheaper then the Aibo, and a potentially more capable hardware platform. Though, seems like the Aibo has the win on the software side.

I think the new Xiaomi[1] fits that description? Still a little spendy, but compared to $75K for Boston Dynamics, not quite as far out of reach...

1: https://blog.mi.com/en/2021/08/10/xiaomi-launches-cyberdog-a...

oh wow - $1500 USD ? thats really nice! Hopefully the prices will keep dropping!

Why on earth does it need a cellular plan rather than Wifi?

So you can take it for a walk?

The walk really slowly. The can "run", but only for a very limited amount of time before their servos overheat and the dog has to take a nap.

Not going to walk with it doesn’t seem very …erm animal friendly.

The one I saw back in the early 00s walked off the end of the conference table it was being shown off on :-)

Perhaps its gotten better at walking since then...I mean, roomba's can avoid edges - so robot dogs should too, right?

I guess for a seamless experience if you take it out of your home wifi range. It would be illusion-breaking if the dog displayed "Connectivity error" if you take it to your car.

It'd be pretty awesome if it scrolled across its chassis though.

Because the Internet of Things is not about Convenience to the Customer but Surveillance from the Supplier.

One thing that isn't very clear in the article is she seems to be talking about the reissued Aibo from 2017. Hence all the stuff about neural networks.

yeah - It sounded like she didn't realize how far back the aibo's go..

Though, the original Aibo's were supposed to have some AI and even cloud functions - learned behaviors and online 'journals' and pictures.

They are big in Japan, some even have 4 of them in the house and they love them.

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