vnunet.com Sony Aibo 4

It’s a dog’s life.

RRP £1,320.00

By Jason Jenkins [06-12-2001]

We have looked at Sony’s Aibo twice before and have been impressed each time. Aibo is a robot that can respond to commands, interact with its environment and develop a limited personality based on its experiences.

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The mouth is now dominated by a tiny digital camera a little like a webcam. There’s also a switch that can be used to praise or scold Aibo for its behaviour, and a set of LEDs which shine blue if the dog’s happy, and red if it’s angry. There’s an additional group of LEDs on its back.

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The details of Aibo’s character are stored on a Memory Stick. It needs special pink Memory Sticks that support a particular kind of copy protection to stop the software on them appearing on the internet as free downloads.

Sony has a Wireless WiFi (802.11b) card available as an optional extra for around £250. With this, and the right software (which is more money still), you can control the dog directly from your computer. It’s possible to create your own tricks, which are then downloaded to the Memory Stick for the creature to perform.

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