SKIRMISHER

Ugobe’s dinosaur robot called Pleo has some new “improvements,” but Peter Paschal describes his first encounter with almost the same old things we’ve already seen in the robot’s early version:

He says:

Picking him up for the first time, I felt that Pleo had a little more heft than Wow Wee’s Roboraptor, and the skin adds to the durability somewhat. But Pleo was definitely not built to win any races — his slow walking speed (you can see his crawl in the video) would invite the relatively quick Roboreptile to have him for lunch. Pleo’s reaction time, though (how long it took to respond to interactions), was near-instantaneous. Since the idea with Pleo is to give you something close to an actual pet, as opposed to a toy, that’s essential. His voice could use a bit more volume, though (apparently the final version will be louder). The built-in NiMH battery is rated at 2 hours of continuous use; charging takes about 4 hours. And you cannot play with him while he’s charging. Apparently there are safety regs about that, although Ugobe CEO Bob Christopher said he preferred the limitation because the cord would “shatter the illusion.”

I saw the first Pleo video months ago, and as Peter says, it’s darned slow. The company assures everybody that this once’s much smarter, although there’s no word if it’s already smart enough to hump furiously any sexy human leg it sees.

via SCI FI TECH

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