Oh Pleo!
What’s Pleo? Or, maybe a better question would be, Who’s Pleo? He’s a lovable little robot dinosaur that I sort of heard a year ago, thought it was cool, but somehow forgot about it, until yesterday, when Engadget did a post on their new baby. I checked out their site, and gasped at the price - $350 for the little one. Sigh.
Here’s my concern. I’m always intrigued with robotic toys, from the now departed AIBO, WoWee’s toys (not too fascinating) and now, Ugobe’s creation - Pleo. The original AIBO costs around $1,500, and they were just way beyond my budget. They did come out with lower-end versions called Latte and Macaron, but still expensive at $800 each. So now Pleo is definitely cheaper than its predecessors, but I’m not sure it has as much functionality as they did. Should I get one, or a Kettler trike for my daughter? Since she’s two, I’m sure Pleo is more for my entertainment than her, and she might be scared by it. So far, when looking at pictures of Pleo on websites she didn’t exhibit any fear, and when I asked her “Do you want that?”, she said “Yes”.
What I really want to see is a full, unbiased review of Pleo - does he really fulfill Ugobe’s three laws of robotics:
Feel and convey emotion
Be aware of themselves and their environment
Learn and develop over time
Would you just take a look at those big blue eyes and friendly face?
