Ugobe’s Pleo

I read about Pleo last month in Make, and whilst the enthusiasm of the team involved was intriguing, the pictures of the product itself didn’t really make me want to know more: in still shots the little robotic dinosaur looks like a cheap plastic toy, boring and static. Seeing it in action, however, I begin to think they might have made something rather splendid. I almost want one for myself.

There has been some controversy surrounding that video, which turns out to have been scripted, but for understandable reasons. Other videos released by PC Magazine seem to show some unscripted movements and reaction to the environment. If we give Ugobe the benefit of the doubt and assume that they are going to be able to deliver an autonomous robotic baby dinosaur at some point this year, it looks like they’re going to make a killing. It should be noted that they have previous form: Pleo’s creator, Caleb Chung, was apparently one of the team behind Furby, a toy that, back in 1999, provided my university housemates with so much entertainment that they went out and bought a second one so they could have “conversations”. They’d have loved something like Pleo.

2 comments 2007-02-03 12:04 Categories: Consumerism, Geek Stuff