New AIBO - Meet the ERS-7 186
ejtttje writes "Sony announced today (also here) the ERS-7, the third generation of the AIBO. New specifications include more computational power, improved sensors, and, last but not least, built-in 802.11b WiFi standard! Additional information from the Japanese Flash promo includes this flash video. (8MB, mirror - sorry, no mpg). Sony will also be releasing a new version of the OPEN-R SDK to continue support of third party AIBO developers. (self plug ;) Pre-orders start October 10, and ship early November, for $1599 (in the US)."
The coolest peripheral... (Score:5, Informative)
If you're like me, you've got an Aibo who does all kinds of cool shit, but only when nobody else is around. When ten people are circling the Aibo and cooing and ahing, the sensors get all confused and he just sits and yaps like he thinks he's blocked. With the remote, he was able to turn off the eyes momentarily, as well as putting the thing in a no-reaction mode where he could just reposition the thing and restart whichever react mode it was in.
If I could get my hands on one of these, I could impress friends more easily, and they'd probably sell a dozen times as many!
Re:The coolest peripheral... (Score:2, Informative)
s/not sure they'll be showing/not sure they'll be selling/
Regardless, it was a great little controller. From what I could tell, one of the joysticks was dedicated to moving the Aibo, and several of the buttons had fixed functions (labels built on, but in Japanese so I couldn't read them). The other joystick and buttons all had generic number and letter labels, which leads me to think that you could use them with your own Aibo apps, if you picked up the programmer toolkit (if you're on Slash and you picked up an Aibo, you had to have gotten the toolkit too, right?). I think it'd be pretty cool to make the second just adjust where he's "looking." If you hid that thing in your pocket, you could make him seem to follow someone's movements about the room and freak them out more than a little.
Then again, I'd also add a flatulence button. But anyone who's read the press recently already knows I'm not a good person.
Disappointing video (Score:2, Informative)
The SDK looks cool though.
Re:The coolest peripheral... (Score:3, Informative)
Every time the new models are released, you find a ton of people selling their old ones. Watch for it -- so many hit at the same time, that they go for peanuts.
Good luck, kind sir.
I don't like my aibo (Score:5, Informative)
I have (well, my team at work has...) and aibo ERS-220, and it really is a heap of shit. This is not a troll; I really do have one, and it really is shit.
We were expecting it to do cool stuff, but it just wonders round the room bumping into stuff. After a while it sits down and plays a little song. After doing this a few times it runs out of battery and dies.
That's it. Biggest waste of two thousand pounds ever. Now the new one's come out we'll be lucky to get four hundred for it on eBay.
I'm done now (:
AIBO AI Mind (Score:4, Informative)
The Aibo Kennel Club [aibokennelclub.org] has an Aibo AI Mind [aibokennelclub.org] that needs some re-working and hacking so as to be installed in your pet robot dog -- making it an intelligent companion.
A Python Software Development (SDK) [evolution.com] is available for the Evolution Robotics ER1 Personal Robot -- why not for the Aibo?
The Python AI Weblog [sourceforge.net] is a start for coding Python AI minds for Aibos and other robots.
The Visual Basic AI Weblog [e-mind.org] promotes AI coding not just for Aibo pet dogs but for humanoid robots.
The Perl AI Weblog [visitware.com] is for perl geeks, Aibo owners, and coders of server-side 'Net-roaming AI.
The Lisp AI Weblog [virtualentity.com] goes beyond Aibo and other toys into the most serious AI theory [scn.org] and practice.
Please support public-domain open-source artificial intelligence for Aibo and all other robots.
The only comfort is... (Score:2, Informative)
As usual, mostly semi-knowledgeable people are at risk, not the newbies nor the "experts"...
--
Christian.
Aibotoys Aibo Games [aibotoys.com]
Re:I don't like my aibo (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Disappointing video (Score:3, Informative)