Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Sony Aibo Review: How Much Is That Robot In The Window?”.
In July of 1999, Sony gave tech lovers, the perfect gift to kick off life in the new millennium. The first robot dog for the home. AIBO stood for Artificial Intelligence Robot., But when pronounced in Sony’s native Japanese, the word also means buddy, pal or more sinisterely accomplice., And even though it cost $ 2100 and was only sold on the internet. Again, back in 1999, Sony sold 5000 AIBOs in its first week. Flash forward 20 years and the newest AIBO just clomped his way into my home. Hi.
He’s sophisticated smart and so lifelike he’ll wag. His way right into your heart., Which is exactly why those who buy him should be careful., (, mid tempo, synth, music ). What do you think My AIBO review sample came from Sony with an unexpected treat.? The previous reviewer’s profile hadn’t been cleared, so he already had a sex male, a name Trotter and a glimmer of personality. See AIBO’s designed to learn over time over a period of months, even years to complete the illusion of a puppy that gradually grows into a dog. Trotter is still young with what seems to me like only a few weeks of cumulative experiences., So his behaviors are unpredictable., It’s clear.
He hears and understands the commands I give to him, but sometimes he disobeys.. What are you growling for No growling (, yapping )? Bad? Ok sit down., (, yapping ) Sit down, ( yapping ). If this sounds frustrating ( laughing ) yeah it can be., But that’s by design. Like a real puppy. Trotter is difficult because he hasn’t been trained yet..
It’S a different kind of frustration than when Jibo can’t understand a verbal, cue or Vector constantly drives himself off a table.. Keep those robots in mind. Folks, because I will be coming back to them.. Aibo is, in some ways a more pure form of social robot than I’ve used because he hasn’t had any practical skills grafted on at least not yet.. This is a robot made purely to be your pal, not to tell you the weather or wake you up in the morning, at least not when you want him to.
(, yapping ), He barks he wags he trots. Oh, I just got that When his two hours of battery charge are exhausted, he’s designed to walk back to his charging pad on his own, which he accomplishes about half the time.. The wide angle camera in his nose and the time of flight sensor in his mouth. Give him vision and depth perception, so he can play with his bone and ball and avoid falling off high places most of the time.
Nice. When I said this robot is sophisticated, I mean it., You see this camera at the root of his tail. That will eventually help AIBO map the ceiling of your home to help him navigate using a technology called SLAM popularized by robot vacuum. Cleaners. AIBO’s eyes are OLED, displays, expressive and playful., And they don’t really flicker like this. That’S a trick of the camera.
AIBO has capacitive and pressure sensors in paws head and back so Trotter can tell the difference between a pat and a whack. And four microphones too. So he can discern between vocal praise and vocal scolding. (, yapping ) Hi (, yapping ) Hi ( laughing ). All this input from you. He feeds to his servers in Sony’s cloud to apply those lessons and grow his personality.
And therein lies a problem. Folks. I just published a video titled “, It’s time to stop buying social robots.”. The reason I took that stand is because they’re just too good at convincing us softie humans to welcome them into our hearts, which means they’re almost guaranteed to break our hearts when the companies behind them go out of business..
Take Jibo Incorporated when it went under its eponymous robot became a shell of its former self. And I was affected enough by that to make a funereal almost reverential video about it., With Anki Robotics, now out of business, its robot Vector struggling to avoid the same fate.. I don’t expect Sony will go out of business anytime soon, but you know corporations are fickle. At some point.
The company might start to wonder how much money it could save by shuttering its robot dog division.. What’S that? Oh, This, just in. That exact thing already happened. Once.
Yep, back in 2006, Sony cited poor sales for its decision to discontinue AIBO, breaking the hearts of a generation of owners.. A lot of the old message boards are still up from those times. And mining them is actually a fascinating bit of web archeology. Fancy bitmap wallpapers and all. When Sony formally halted support for AIBOs the ones that were already purchased in 2014, a cottage industry of AIBO repair shops sprung up to keep repairing the aging pups.. Now, look, you may find it difficult to understand or even absurd that people from real emotional bonds with robots, but it does happen.
And when they stop working the grief is real too.. Now that said, we have to give Sony the credit it deserves.. Continuing support for a terminated product for seven years shows rare compassion for the users. And, in that same spirit, Sony’s trying to turn the cloud to its advantage. By get this letting you back up your AIBO’s entire personality to the servers. It’d be like if you had a USB port in your sternum and could back up your soul.
That way. If something happens to your puppy well, you could buy a new one and download your old AIBO’s personality into it.. That connection to the cloud is via wifi or LTE, with three years of connectivity baked into the cost of AIBO., Expensive Sure.. But the kind of person willing to drop almost three Gs on a robot companion is the same person willing to do that more than once..
If it means they don’t have to lose their friend., I asked Sony what happens if AIBO loses touch with its servers like if say it was discontinued again And the company said: AIBO relies on the servers to remember tricks and to learn over time, but not to Function on the day-to-day., So no sudden, doggy, death. AIBO certainly has his problems.. Trotter is a clumsy walker.. His singing to himself can get on your nerves. Pees on things on occasion. And his companion. App is truly terrible. Like if the adoption process for a real dog was as convoluted as AIBO’s initial setup.
No one would own a pet., But if, for whatever reason, you can’t or won’t get a biological buddy and you have $ 2900 to spend on an artificial one, AIBO is the only social robot. I’Ve used that I can still recommend. You’re still at the mercy of a big company, but Sony’s track record is better than anyone else’s at this point.
And even if the worst happens, servers get turned off. Your dog won’t die, it’ll just stop learning. And at some point don’t we all Give me a paw, hi, ( laughing ) Event alert folks. If you like, drones, you’re in for a treat on Friday July 12th., I’m headed down to Brooklyn New York to check out the BMW Formula, E Drone Racing League Event live and in person., Don’t miss. It follow me on Instagram @ theMrMobile..
Folks, if you want to learn some more about social robots check out my two videos on Jibo and one on Vector RIP times, two @ theMrMobile on YouTube. And please subscribe if tech videos like this, get your servo spinning.. This video made possible by a three week. Aibo review device loan from Sony., No copy approval was granted and no compensation was provided. Until next time. Thanks for watching and stay mobile, my friends .