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Friday August 24, 2007
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No doubt about it, the best consumer robots ever built came from Sony. But when the company pulled the plug on its robotics division more than a year ago, it left robot enthusiasts like me crying in their servos. Now comes word from Nikkei Business Online (and re reported elsewhere on robots blogs like WaziWazi), that Toyota is possibly buying Sony's shuttered robotics division. It's potentially great news, but I'm not exactly sure of what Sony will be getting.
Manufacturing stopped on the AIBO as early as September of 2005. And inventories of AIBOs were, I believe, sold out (you can find them today on eBay). What's more, the $70,000 QRIO humanoid robot was never designed as a true consumer automaton, so there are only a handful of those around. My guess is that Toyota is getting the robot tech expertise, designs, and manufacturing equipment for the beloved bots.
The big question here (aside from whether or not this sale is all pure speculation) is: Will Toyota start building new AIBO's or will the company simply use the tech to enhance their own robotics efforts, including its latest tour guide.
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August 25, 2007 10:22 AM
I think Toyota definitely needs to continue with AIBO (and QRIO). I wonder if there's a way to let them know that us, the consumers, are interested in new robots for us to buy (not for their promotions) and that we'd be a lot more supportive if that's what we're getting out of it.
September 1, 2007 7:44 PM
I dont know if the world needs the AIBO but the QRIO could change lives forever. If Toyota finish the production of the QRIO the world would be better off. Humans would no longer need to do the dangerous or pointless jobs anymore we would have robots to do it for us. And besidesthat, the people of the world would be forever greatfull. Toyota could push humanity into a new era, but only after they finish the production of QRIO and why not finish AIBO too!!!
January 7, 2009 11:17 AM
I could never afford an Aibo, I bought an i-Cybie dog (blue). He was nice, but no Aibo. Toyota resurrecting the Aibo and QRio!!??! This is AWESOME NEWS as I believed in Sony, but they seem to start something GREAT and let it linger for no unknown reason - playing golf? I love my Toyota 2001 PreRunner and stand by it. I'm a Toyota guy for life (though my family is Ford). Toyota, if played their cards right and listen to some fanboys (Aibopet - the true innovator), Toyota WILL be the T in TOY for ALL!
I REALLY thought Sony was going to allow the Aibo to 'connect' to the PS2 or PS3 to help play video games made for Aibo or alert you "Hi Master, it is now 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Fringe is on. Tonight episode is about Aibo, the wonder dog. Would you like me to change the channel to the correct station? Please say "Yes" to do so or "No" to bypass this action."
This is kind of fun too. I can now have a 'dog' for my truck! "Toyota Aibo", sounds nice!
March 27, 2009 4:55 PM
A consumer, autonomous, bipedal robot must be a few things. FIRST it must be affordable. $500.00 max, two it must be truly autonomous meaning it can charge itslef. Locate it's docking station, charge, dismount, roam and interact, recognize low batt and charge again. This would give it a truly autonomous life cycle.
Lastly it must be useful in some sense. Singing and dancing proved to not be enough to get consumers to fork over the dough.
It can be a roaming source of information however if it could answer any question. I can do this now with my iPhone in conjunction with Vlingo. I simply speak into the phone what Im looking for and the iphone uses 3g and Google to retrieve results. Perhaps a similar software can be optimized for an autonomous robot...example :Robot..what are the movie times for The Watchmen..it uses Vlingo like software to convert speech to text..runs the search through google..selects first result..uses GPS to identify closest movie theatres in the area..recites movie times.
Or..Robot..give me a recipe for smothered chicken over rice...it performs the same action..voice to text..searchr..results and then text to robotic speech.
In that sense the robot becomes a source of info.