UPDATE: Death to Pleo

POSTED: 12:25 MDT Thursday, December 6, 2007

by Eddie Kovsky

Caleb Chung and Pleo

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Tags - Caleb Chung, Technology, toys, Ugobe

After years of development, Pleo is finally shipping to customers – just in time for the holiday season. In case you haven’t heard, Pleo is an autonomous, anthropomorphic robot – the product of inventor/toy designer/mime Caleb Chung’s imagination.

Chung wanted Pleo to behave like a real animal – to react to his environment and express his needs and emotions. Each baby dinosaur is designed to be completely unique – how you treat it determines how its personality will develop.

Pleo’s development has taken years to perfect, but if you’ve been lucky enough to see Chung demonstrate his creation, the effect is really remarkable: Pleo seems REAL.

So I found this video of early reviewers torturing Pleo quite disturbing. Pleo may be nothing more than sophisticated motors and advanced software, but the sum is greater than the parts.

The cruelty is very real, which is a testament to what Chung and the team at Ugobe have been able to achieve.

(Tip of the hat to Boing Boing blogger Mark Frauenfelder for posting the Pleo video, as well as offering some good advice: don’t show this video to your kids.)

UPDATE: The first reviews have appeared.

1 Comments

Way to go, Caleb!
Ever since I saw you jump on a table at a breakfast talk about the Furby, I knew you had the Entrepreneurial Spark! (and the cojones to pull it off...again)
I'm just worried about having something smarter than me in the house (other than my sweetie, of course!)
Folks - go check out Pleo (www.pleoworld.com & www.ugobe.com)
Eddie - don't know if you've seen Pleo in person, but it's scarier than you think, LOL!
Comment By Norris Krueger
Friday, December 7, 2007 @ 7:18 PM

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