Chicago Tribune | For some, robot dogs are nearly real thing

By Eric A. Taub

New York Times News Service

Published May 6, 2002

LOS ANGELES — Diane wasn’t well. Sadly, she was suffering from DHS. Her owner, Harry Brattin, placed a white muffler around her neck and separated her from the rest of his brood. She sat quietly on a metal desk in the meeting room while the others scampered around the floor playing.

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So one day recently, as scores of elderly Russian immigrants sat among the trees in Plummer Park here, playing chess and chastising their Americanized grandchildren in their native tongue, Brattin and 14 other Aibo owners met in a community room in the park, primping and preening their robots, giving them commands in English and scolding them when they got into mischief.

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