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I'm curious as to why the Aibo was discontinued in 2006. What we're able to do from a sensor and processing perspective today, I'm sure, blows away whatever the

I'm curious as to why the Aibo was discontinued in 2006. What we're able to do from a sensor and processing perspective today, I'm sure, blows away whatever the original Aibo did. I can imagine a return to this at a much cheaper cost. The robot pet market never really took off, which makes no sense to me. Personally, I would love an intelligent robot dog that my real dog could play with when I'm not at home. Especially if it had basic teleconferencing features that let check up on my dog and my house. With VR, it might be possible to control the robot dog and play with your dog, as a dog. The $59 robots at the toy store really aren't the same thing. You need more than a trivial amount of intelligence and movement. We need a robot pet startup here. Hardware is tough but if this thing sold under $500 and was at least as intelligent as the Aibo, I could see it selling in large numbers. I also find it pleasing that Japan's religious structures are so flexible that a robot funeral isn't a big deal. In the largely dogmatic West, it would be a scandal if, say, a Catholic priest attempted this.

ccozan 12y ago
We are working on this ;). Stay tuned.
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  Would love to hear more about your product!
jacquesm 12y ago
> Personally, I would love an intelligent robot dog that my real dog could play with when I'm not at home. Two dogs? No dogs?
- drzaiusapelord 12y ago
  Two dogs means 2x the daycare costs, 2x the vet costs, etc. >No dogs? Maybe. I like having a dog, but would like a better way to interact with her while I'm at work and other scenarios (people who wants pets but cant care for them like the elderly or the allergic or the relatively poor).
ctdonath 12y ago
an intelligent robot dog that my real dog could play with I have one of the original AIBOs. (Demand was so high they had a lottery to distribute them. Put in my order thinking I couldn't win the 1:13 chance, but did.) After getting married, I stopped using it for a while (other preoccupations), leaving it sitting on the charger in the living room. We got a real puppy. After little Teddy settled in, I turned on the AIBO. O. M. G. Teddy freaked out. Pretty much the same reaction as if your chair just suddenly started wandering around the room by itself. AIBO promptly got shelved.
grogen 12y ago
I did a short stint in Sony's robotics lab working on the humanoid Qrio (the successor to Aibo) at that time. From what I understand, Sony started getting poor financial results around that time. The Aibo and Qrio were viewed largely as R&D (Aibo was not a major product and Qrio was still years out) and as such, were on the chopping block for cost savings when times got tight.
DanBC 12y ago
People became attached to their Tamagotchis and people liked talking to ELIZA. You need surprisingly little power to make people bond to stuff.
- tjr 12y ago
  Sherry Turkle's book Alone Together talks a lot about this. A recurring theme is people seeing social robots going from being "better than nothing", partially filling some human void, to being "better than anything", because the robot has some set of qualities superior to humans. Medical care robots, for example, lack the disgruntled attitudes cited by elderly patients. Robotic dogs are there to play when you want to play with them, and can be easily stowed away when you don't. I found it both fascinating and disconcerting how easily people seem to accept robots instead of other people in a variety of relations.

ccozan 12y ago

We are working on this ;). Stay tuned.

drzaiusapelord 12y ago
Would love to hear more about your product!

jacquesm 12y ago

> Personally, I would love an intelligent robot dog that my real dog could play with when I'm not at home. Two dogs? No dogs?

drzaiusapelord 12y ago
Two dogs means 2x the daycare costs, 2x the vet costs, etc. >No dogs? Maybe. I like having a dog, but would like a better way to interact with her while I'm at work and other scenarios (people who wants pets but cant care for them like the elderly or the allergic or the relatively poor).

ctdonath 12y ago

an intelligent robot dog that my real dog could play with I have one of the original AIBOs. (Demand was so high they had a lottery to distribute them. Put in my order thinking I couldn't win the 1:13 chance, but did.) After getting married, I stopped using it for a while (other preoccupations), leaving it sitting on the charger in the living room. We got a real puppy. After little Teddy settled in, I turned on the AIBO. O. M. G. Teddy freaked out. Pretty much the same reaction as if your chair just suddenly started wandering around the room by itself. AIBO promptly got shelved.

grogen 12y ago

I did a short stint in Sony's robotics lab working on the humanoid Qrio (the successor to Aibo) at that time. From what I understand, Sony started getting poor financial results around that time. The Aibo and Qrio were viewed largely as R&D (Aibo was not a major product and Qrio was still years out) and as such, were on the chopping block for cost savings when times got tight.

DanBC 12y ago

People became attached to their Tamagotchis and people liked talking to ELIZA. You need surprisingly little power to make people bond to stuff.

tjr 12y ago
Sherry Turkle's book Alone Together talks a lot about this. A recurring theme is people seeing social robots going from being "better than nothing", partially filling some human void, to being "better than anything", because the robot has some set of qualities superior to humans. Medical care robots, for example, lack the disgruntled attitudes cited by elderly patients. Robotic dogs are there to play when you want to play with them, and can be easily stowed away when you don't. I found it both fascinating and disconcerting how easily people seem to accept robots instead of other people in a variety of relations.