Pleo will change the toy game
AUSTIN, Texas--Every so often, a product comes along that just changes the game. The iPhone. The Segway. The Roomba.
Get ready to add the Pleo to that list.
A row of five prototype Pleos at the Maker Faire in Austin, Texas on October 19, 2007. These Pleos are not final production models, though they are very close.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)The animatronic dinosaur Pleo is hotly anticipated to hit the market next year and it's already possible to pre-order one for $349. What makes this toy such a game changer is that it is so amazingly lifelike that it's hard not to treat it like it's real.
I first saw the Pleo at Demo '06. Back then, the toy was expected to be available by the 2006 holidays and to cost $200. So much for that plan. With that in mind, some healthy skepticism is warranted as to whether the toy's maker, Ugobe, can get it out any time soon.
'Make' magazine editor-in-chief and Boing Boing co-editor Mark Frauenfelder pets a Pleo at Maker Faire in Austin. The Pleo has sensors that allow it to walk to the edge of a table and stop before it falls off.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)Still, this is one amazing toy. I played with it for a few minutes today during the final afternoon of preparations for Maker Faire in Austin, which begins Saturday and will continue through Sunday. It was totally charming. The Pleo has dozens of sensors, sensitive to light, to touch, and to edges, and so its behavior is somewhat akin to that of a pet.
It's not a pet, of course, but when you play with it, patting its head, or scratching its chin, and the little dinosaur purrs contentedly or tilts its head back in seeming bliss, it's hard not to believe it's alive.
A Pleo reacts with obvious pleasure and happiness when its chin is scratched.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)So, I have little doubt that when it finally is for sale, it is going to set the toy industry on its ear. Consumers will be blown away by what it can do and how it behaves. Ugobe is going to take a further step toward making it fantastic by letting owners download new sounds onto it and to modify it with custom behaviors. (Thus, it really is a suitable product to exhibit at Maker Faire.)
Ugobe brought a bunch of Pleos, some of which are wearing green tags around their necks to designate them as "A-list performers," according to Ugobe employee Prema Polit. That means, she explained, that the green-taggers can be counted on to do what they're supposed to, move as expected, react as designed, and so forth. By the time they're released, of course, the company will ensure that all Pleos are A-listers.
Whether the amazement it generates will translate into huge sales is another question. The $349 price is pretty steep, even for such a lifelike creature, because, despite its realism, it can't do that many things.
I love it, though, and I want one. I'm not sure what I would do with it, particularly because I'm pretty sure my cat would have harsh words for it.
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But here's hoping Pleo is available soon. I'm really looking forward to seeing how people react; I expect a collective dropped jaw.
REDESIGNING THE DINOSAUR
MEET PLEO, THE POSTHISTORIC PET
Evgeny Morozov reports from the 2007 Pop!Tech conference in Maine, on a toymaker who is reinventing the dinosaur. Except that these new dinosaurs, from the sound of it, will be smarter than the original ones. Not to say, better with children ...
Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE Caleb Chung is the reigning genius at Ugobe, a company that "develops revolutionary robotics that transform inanimate objects into lifelike creatures". For Pop!Tech he delivers a mind-boggling demonstration of one of Ugobe's much-trailed new "living toys"—a life-size two-week-old camarasaurus called Pleo, powered by an open-source operating system, Life OS, that has a capacity to learn. Pleo should be on sale for $350 retail right before Christmas.
Chung, who is half German and half Chinese, began his toymaking career with Mattel in 1985, designing for a division which targeted the infant, preschool, boys' toys, Barbie, activities and games markets.
He shows a video of some of the more outlandish inventions he came up with there, some of which he actually convinced Mattel to develop: toy cookie- and apple-pie makers, a bunch of fighting robots that fought each other almost to virtual death, a sort of Barbie on wheels, and many other toys that "you wouldn't want to give you kids at Christmas", as Chung puts it.
His fortunes soared after he co-invented the hot toy of 1998, Furby, which sold over 50 million units worldwide, generating over $1.2 billion in sales. That was probably a precursor of things to come; Furby was cute, but in a very special, perhaps, even "robotic" way.
The global success of Furby allowed Chung to retire; but he was restless, he had always wanted to build a dinosaur, and he started working on Pleo—an attempt to make a real life-form replicating a baby dinosaur.
Who needs another life form? Why do it? Chung says that he believes that humans need empathy and we don't get enough of this in real life. So there is a place for these new life-forms in our society and they do serve a real purpose of comforting us.
To design his dinosaur, Chung spent a lot of time nosing around museums and reading obscure books, trying to get close to the real thing. He spent an incredible amount of time creating an eye that would look authentic
The philosophy behind Pleo is based on what Chung calls the "three laws of Ugobe life-forms". First of all, these creatures should show how they "feel" and what they are "thinking". Second, they should become aware of themselves and the environment. Finally, they should be able to learn and adopt over time, just as real creatures do. Thus, although Pleo is filled in with all sorts of gadgets and little particles—motors, gears, software—what gets you is the "human" part of it. "You get a character that you can fall in love with", says Chung.
Pleo is really heavy on the gadgets part. Inside is a 32-bit microprocessor and four 8-bit subprocessors, as well as 100 customized gears, 38 sensors, 14 motors and a camera-based optical system (it also has a card-slot and USB slots on its stomach). On top of that it's powered by an open-source operating system, Life OS. We could all end up writing applications for our Pleos.
Chung brought a beta prototype and showed it off. This Pleo made weird sounds and behaved rather naughtily; at one point Chung had to turn it off, because it was competing for the audience's attention. I would be curious to observe Pleo's learning process. At least while on stage, it didn't really improve its behavior in real-time!
We’ve been anxiously awaiting the debut of the Pleo—the super high-tech robo-dino loaded with sensors and artificial intelligence—since we first reported on it last year. Here at Pop!Tech, I had a chance to chat with the Pleo’s inventor, Caleb Chung.
He brought along the latest prototype (it’s scheduled to go on sale this Christmas) which proceeded to graze, coo and whine adorably throughout the interview—Chung fed him my business card when he got hungry. I must say, the thing is really cute. And it's all in the little details: he sort of giggles when you chuck him under the chin, has big blue eyes that blink and get droopy when he gets tired, and so on. Chung says they're the most realistic-looking eyes ever placed in a toy and, looking at the Pleo, I believe him.
The other really amazing thing about the Pleo physically is its uniquely soft, rubbery skin. You can sort of scrunch it up in your hand, like puppy scruff, which I proceeded to do immediately. Interestingly, the skin was one of the hardest parts of the Pleo to make, Chung told me, because it basically makes the toy a walking rubber bag. "How do you get sound out of a rubber bag? How do you dissipate heat?"
Much has been made of the pet's artificial intelligence capabilities, but the cooler feature, I think, is the Pleo's programmable open-source computing platform. Want him to speak with your voice? Sleep less? Eat more? He's your pet and you can train him as you please. Hacks are welcome, says Chung. You could even take advantage of Pleo’s more than 33 sensory inputs—object detectors, infrared sensors, capacitive touch sensors, and more—turning him into a smoke detector or a surveillance cam for your home (my ideas, not Chung's). Making the Pleo quite the multi-talented Dino. And did I mention it’s cute? —Nicole Dyer
By Dan Nystedt, IDG News Service
Pleo isn’t your typical robotic dinosaur pet. Not only does it cry when scolded, shake hands and wag its tail like a dog, but its open-source OS allows users — or the more tech-savvy ones, at least — to create new emotions and movements on their own, which they can share with others.
“This is a real-time OS we developed ourselves; its our own kernel. We wanted to allow people to build on it, so you can take the platform and change his personality,” said Bob Christopher, chairman, chief executive and cofounder of Ugobe Inc., which designs and markets the “dino-bot.”
The Emeryville, California, company was in Taipei Tuesday to introduce Pleo to the island, where some of its largest investors reside, and which is home to its new manufacturing partner, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd.
About the size of a fat cat, Pleo was designed to look like a one-week old Camarasaurus, a North American dinosaur from the Jurassic period that roamed giant fern forests. It will be one of the most intricate devices Hon Hai has ever produced. It has six microprocessors — the main one is a 32-bit ARM 7, and it has four subordinate 10-bit Toshiba Corp. processors and an 8-bit image processor from Sunplus Technology.
It also boasts 38 sensor chips, giving it stereo hearing to listen for commands, image sensors to detect range, so it won’t run into walls or fall off a table, and touch sensors so it can respond with a smile and a wag of the tail when it’s patted on the head.
The company that designed it has some pedigree. Caleb Chung, Ugobe’s chief inventor and cofounder, was one of the creators of Furby, the interactive toy that became a sensation, selling more than 40 million worldwide. Other employees include Gordon Radley, a former president of Lucasfilm Ltd., and Steve Mayer, a cofounder of both Atari Computer and Activision Publishing Inc.
The influence of gaming and movies is apparent in Pleo’s animated personality. He has a library of sounds that allows him to respond with squeaks and roars, and he’ll adjust his body depending on his mood, lowering his head and pulling in his tail when he is sad, for instance.
Users who are adept with software can program new movements and emotions for Pleo. And they can share these with other owners, who can load them through its SD card slot or over the Web through its USB (universal serial bus) port.
Pleo runs slow, like a plodding dinosaur, to ensure a minimum of two hours battery life, Christopher said. Its nickel metal hydrate (Ni-MH) battery will last up to four hours when Pleo is less active. It takes four to six hours to recharge it, and the toy stays awake during recharging to let users know when he’s ready again for action.
Pleo won’t be out for the important holiday shopping season, however. Ugobe will begin taking pre-orders for the toy online starting Dec. 24, and expects it to be in stores by March 2007, for under US$250.00.
The company hopes to go beyond toys to bring a whole new range of robotics to life, although they aren’t saying what’s next. Pleo is designed partly to show what’s possible with today’s low-cost components and advanced software, Christopher said. “The idea is to recreate life in robotics,” he said.
We’ve been anxiously awaiting the debut of the Pleo—the super high-tech robo-dino loaded with sensors and artificial intelligence—since we first reported on it last year. Here at Pop!Tech, I had a chance to chat with the Pleo’s inventor, Caleb Chung. 