Pleo Review - A Toy Robot Triumph?

SkinnyGuy writes "PCMag has one of the first reviews of the new robotic dinosaur. Is it worth $350? I think this reviewer thinks so. 'What most people will have a hard time understanding is that Ugobe's Pleo is one of the most sophisticated personal home entertainment robotic devices on the market today. It easily outshines robot toys from Wow Wee and Hasbro, though both companies offer robots that cost less than half of what Pleo does. Its nearest competitor, the Wow Wee Robopanda, is a good gift for young children, but it's not nearly as adorable, animated, or intelligent as Pleo. (Yes, it can stand up and crawl, but it doesn't look very good doing it.)'"

Re:That is the problem with robotics in general...

[gad_zuki!]

Well, the robotpanda is 150 dollars, which is less than half of the asking price of the pleo. The robopanda, like the rest of the toys from that company are pretty simplistic and fun. I think this design is a better idea than the pleo/aibo idea of a super complex computer driven "pet simulator" that costs a lot more than people are willing to spend on the gimmick.

I'd rather be able to buy a toy robot I can say "read me a bedtime story" than one that has realistic moods and realitic poops. I understand the popularity of the furby, but that was mostly to the toddler to pre-5th grade crowd. Not to mention the price point on the furby was pretty good too.

I think people want something that actually does something. If someone asks me what my pet robot does I cuold say "well he reads me a story if I ask. Or he reads me my email if I ask." Not "he simulates the moods of a biological pet." I think the tomogatchi school of robotics is pretty dead in the consumer world. The pleo is a nice gimmick, but thats all it is. At that price its a market failure from the get-go. I could get a roomba and a robopanda for that price.

I like pleo

[AndOne]

My girlfriend got one of the Pleo preorders and I have to say I'm quite amused by it. The fact that it has an SD slot so you can load your own programs onto it and a usb cable for firmware updates really appeals to the geek in me. Honestly I'm looking forward to the proposed updates for pleo and to getting to play with its SDK. Sure it's gimmicky but it's alot of robot parts and it's cute to boot. It's also pretty fun to watch the thing walk around and explore.

To the 'is it useful' crowd... well it's an interesting testbed to work on navigation algorithms for robots that could do 'useful' things and it can encourage kids to get involved in both robotics and programming. Have some goddamn imagination and joy in life... not everything has to be economically viable or solve a problem...

Re:But does it run linux?

[Anonymous Coward]

It never ceases to amaze me how sort sighted and narrow minded the slashdot crowd can be. Without ever seeing one , playing with one, reading about one, or learning anything about the company, the software, the hardware, or the goals behind it, these amazing prognosticators pronounce it 'Yet another stupid, overpriced toy'. It boggles the mind.

Their 'development kit' ( well at least SOMEBODY read a little about them ) is an off the shelf scripting language where you can create new behaviors or modify existing ones that includes access to the library of basic drives and responses. It is designed to be simple enough to be accessible to novice programmers, and the creators hope to be able to produce a more robust one in the future for real programmers and robot junkies. However, it's completely irrelevant whether it runs Linux. The primary processors are standard ARM's, so you can throw out the whole thing and start over if you want. You dont have to defeat any security, you dont have to hack anything... and they did that on purpose.

However, there is a lot more packed into that little plastic and neoprene body. They have created a 'toy' that interacts with the world ( not just you ) based on a volatile set of conflicting drives, states and stimuli that is user extendable and modifiable. Within a generation or two, there is the very real possibility of genuine emergent behaviors. If you don't like their software, it is driven by two ARM processors so you can replace it with whatever you like. Does it have staying power as a childs toy... honestly, yes, I think it does. Once you play with one, you realize that while you will never mistake it for a 'real' dinosaur, it is credible enough that even adults can easily become attached to it - which means for most kids it would be a slam dunk.

This is the second step on a ( very long ) road to credible and natural interactions with machines. You wouldn't spend $400 on a childs toy? Okay, great - don't. I'm certainly not buying one for a child - but I am buying one, and I'll bet dimes to dollars the kids have a blast with it. Pleo is definitely something new under the sun. He's not a souped up Teddy Ruxpin, or a glorified remote control car, or even anything more than distantly related to a TMX or Robosapien. He is the first in what I sincerely hope is a long line of 'lifeforms' from Ugobe, and the first of an entirely new class of toy - one that can alter it's behavior. While that may not be worth $400 ( $350 ) to you, or as a present for your child, do not for a moment presume that this little guy isn't worth every dime- for both what he is, and what will come after him.