Pleo

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This article contains information about a scheduled or expected future product.
It may contain preliminary or speculative information, and may not reflect the final version of the product.

A photo of the pleo prototype

Pleo is a robotic dinosaur, made for all ages, designed to emulate the appearance and behavior of a week-old baby Camarasaurus. It was designed by Caleb Chung, the co-creator of the Furby, and manufactured by Ugobe. Chung selected this species of dinosaur because its stocky head and realitively large cranium (as compared to other dinosaurs) made it ideal for concealing the dozens of sensors and motors used to create the illusion of life. Each Pleo "learns" from its experiences and environment through artificial intellegence, even developing an individual personality. Pleo was unveiled on February 7, 2006 at the Demo Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona and is expected to come on the Indian and American markets around July 2007. (The company hoped for a holiday 2006 release, but this proved unfeasible.) The robot will be software-upgradeable via SD cards or USB and cost around 350 USD. Ugobe will encourage user modifications of the robot's firmware, providing a graphical interface for home users and an API for programmers.

1 Controversy
- 1.1 Official response
- 1.2 The Expected Features For Pleo
2 References

[edit] Controversy

Ugobe claims that the Pleo responds to human interaction and has released two product demonstration videos. Close inspection of these videos reveals that the toy's motions are identical during both demonstrations, despite slightly differing stimuli. Julie Crabill, a Ugobe PR representative, left an unofficial response as a comment on Digg and the footage featured on YouTube.

[edit] Official response

The two videos that were featured on YouTube were commenting on demonstration videos made purely for the DEMO 2006 Conference in February. DEMO is a conference at which presenters have exactly six minutes to demonstrate their new products. The demonstration video is meant to give people a taste – in condensed form – of Pleo's range of behaviors and movements.

[edit] The Expected Features For Pleo

35 sensors to detect touch, light and vision (tilt sensors, nine touch sensors, light sensor etc.)
Directional sound detection
Force feedback sensors
A nose-mounted camera
Upradeable Software
IR communication to communicate with other Pleos
2 Hr. Battery runtime
3 year battery life
14 Quiet Motors
Autonomous interation with owner includes, coughing, blinking and sneezing
Beat Detection
More Features are going to be listed