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AIBO was a big missed opportunity. The unit cost was too high, and the software not advanced enough. But those things can't have been having a huge effect on t
by antimagic 13y ago
AIBO was a big missed opportunity. The unit cost was too high, and the software not advanced enough. But those things can't have been having a huge effect on their R&D budget. They could have kept the same mechanical design, but increased CPU/memory each year, with corresponding work on the AI for minimal pain, reducing the price and improving the utility each year. If that work had continued constantly, we would have some truly remarkable AI pets available by now, which would make the ultimate toy for young children that live in apartments. That same technology could then have been applied to home automation robots. Instead we have Roomba.
- yardie 13y agoLike you, I thought AIBO was far ahead of its time. So far that I assumed Sony was using it to improve their AI and would release better products based on the feedback. Except, they never did. They had a product that everyone saw wasn't going to sell well and just killed it when exactly that happened.
- msabalau 13y agoI wonder if their business case to support just such an ongoing effort counted on a stronger reception in their domestic market--there is a strong cultural affinity in Japan for robots, and crowded conditions that make pet ownership more challenging. The time the AIBO was in the market was a continuation of the austerity driven lost decade(s), with GDP growth of a little over 1% annually. On the other hand, as demonstrated through this thread, there is little tech that Sony hasn't seen capable of messing up.