After a being on the backburner for more than a decade, Sony announced they will be bringing back AIBO the robotic dog.
Sony’s robotic wonder pet is back sporting a sleek new adorable look and plenty of new upgrades.
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Sony’s robotic companion features vibrant movements and responsiveness to match its cute look that Sony promises to delight owners. It will develop its own unique personality from everyday interactions with its owner and grow closer to them as time goes along.
The new version gives you the feel of owning a real furry companion buy responding to owners with lifelike movements and an array of movements. It expresses itself with a combination of eye, ear and tail movements with different vocal sounds.
Thanks to ultracompact 1- and 2- axis actuators developed by Sony, allows the robot pet to move along a total of 22 axes for natural and smooth movements. The eyes feature two OLEDs for diverse and nuanced expressions.
Like a real pet, it doesn’t wait for its owner’s affection, it will actively seek out its owners. The robot pet can detect words of praise, petting, smiles, head pats, back scratches and more while learning and remembering what actions make its owner happy. It’s also very adaptive and learns its environment by gaining more confidence and will explore wider areas. All of this is made possible by Sony’s deep learning technology, with the help of inbuilt sensors that can detect and analyze images and sounds.
The robot pet will also feature fish-eye cameras to help with location and mapping. Just like mans best friend, it’s behavior matures and grows over time as it continually interacts with people. Thanks to Sony’s unique AI technology it allows the pet to interface with the cloud.
With permission from the owner, it will collect data from interactions with its owner, it will then connect to the cloud and access other data collected from different owners and their AIBO and use it to become even smarter.
There will also be an APP called “My AIBO” that will allow owners to interact with their AIBO, view pictures and also purchase additional tricks. There is also an accessory called “Aibone” that costs 2,980 yen (about $26) and promises to “spice up” your life with your robot pet.
The AIBO is the perfect pet for those who always wanted one but just don’t have the time to do physically take care of one. Also if you are anyone in your household is allergic the AIBO is for you. Now as of now the new AIBO will only be available in Japan. No word if it will be coming stateside yet, the AIBO, of course, is pretty expensive costing 198,000 yen ($1,700) with a monthly subscription 2,980 yen (about $26).
The AIBO is available for pre-order right now and if you want to learn more about the robot companion head over to Sony. In the meantime check out the video below to see the AIBO in action.
Photos: Sony
