At the 2006 DEMO Conference today UGOBE announced the first of their new line of Designer Life Form robotics products, beginning with the cuddly Pleo.
Designed to look like a newborn dinosaur (a 1-week old Camarasaurus sauropod, to be exact), Pleo sports 40 sensors, a life-like movement system, 14 servo joints and the ability to exhibit a variety of lifelike moods and actions, including anger, boredom, sneezing, etc.
From the news release:
“UGOBE’s goal is to re-animate life by transforming inanimate objects into lifelike creatures exhibiting organic movement and behaviors,” said Bob Christopher, CEO of UGOBE. “Through evolving companionship, Pleo will suspend disbelief by bringing magic and beauty to life.”
Pleo should be available in Q3 2006 for under $200 retail.
Check out the news release here, or visit the official site here. PC Magazine also has a nice preview of Pleo here by Lance Ulanoff as well.
That price seems almost too good to be true. $200 seems like a steal for what they’re advertising. Perhaps they’re going to sell them at a loss to capture the market, much like Microsoft did with the XBox. Time will tell, but I’m certainly drooling.
-William
http://www.gorobotics.net
MAKE: Magazine (now my absolute favorite mag) had a small blurb about this, with the author saying he couldn’t wait to take it apart! There’s also some debate on the meaning of the company name, Ugobe – I read in an interview (somewhere) that it means ‘you go become’ – looks like another company entering the home-robo scene. $200 seems a bit much for something with not as much flexibility as the RoboSapien VP, though. Not sure about this one.
Jim
thenxtstep.blogspot.com
Here’s video of Ugobe’s DEMO2006 presentation:
http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2006/63039.html
It looks very cheap and it’s even cute!
But it’s not my kind of bot
That is a really cool looking idea! UGOBE! (You go, be!)
Pleos are going to be the new fad! on the photo you can see all the stuff you can do, wow this my kind of toy!! BUT!!! It’s price is crazey! $300 or more. So this is a toy that the rich kids get! I am not rich, but not live on the ground. We are in midtween. But we do have $100 but not $300. This toy looks the best. Well thats what I think.
~Pleo fan