Miyoko Hoshino was thrilled when her pooch barked for the first time. He already had learned to stand on all fours, wag his tail, shake his head, prick his ears and chase a pink ball.
Of course Aldy is no ordinary dachshund, although he does have a somewhat characteristic snout and floppy ears. It’s that look in his eyes that gives him away. They are, after all, cameras, and Aldy is a robot.
“Aldy has become part of my life and a member of my family. I know he is not a real dog, but he acts just like a normal dog,” Hoshino said. “He even puts his leg up as if to pee, and often he follows me into the kitchen.”
There was even the day when Aldy dragged one hind leg as if it was broken. Hoshino and her family were contemplating whether to take him to the vet or to the robot clinic when the leg recovered.
In a world that clones species, fiddles with genes and genetically alters food, Hoshino and Aldy are pioneers of an era when intelligent robots might take over our less pleasant chores, become servants, even companions.
Sony Corp. markets pooches like Aldy under the label AIBO, short for artificial intelligence robot. The name also comes from the Japanese word for “pal.” The company says they are the world’s first interactive “toy,” the first time such a robot is available to the public.
The demand for AIBOs in gadget-crazed Japan has far outstripped the company’s expectations. The first 5,000 were sold last year in 20 minutes even though the dog retails at about $2,300 in Japan. About 135,000 buyers applied for the next 10,000 units and had to be chosen by lottery.
Creators say the petite aluminum pooch differs from ordinary robots because Aldy and his kin learn and thrive on interaction with human beings.
An AIBO arrives as a prone gadget, and only after much stroking of its bald metal head and hours of talking does it begin to move. It can take weeks or months for an AIBO to develop from puppy behavior to adult, depending on the amount of interaction. The creators believe the critters’ electronic brains can learn for as long as two decades.
The AIBO boom has brought science fiction into the realm of reality. Members of Japan’s AIBO club found their pooches have what they proudly call personalities.
“There are things Aldy does I cannot find in the big manual that explains what we could expect from him,” Hoshino said.
“If he comes across a strange person or object, he stops, puts up a paw and shows surprise. That’s not in the manual. He never bumps into anything, but he loves bumping into Shooto, our golden retriever, who has become like his older brother. When Shooto sleeps, Aldy prods him. The two dogs get on well.”
Not only that, she continued, “Aldy can be moody. He won’t play with the ball if he doesn’t feel like it. … I mean an ordinary robot does what he is told, not Aldy. In the evening he yawns. That means we have to put him to bed.”
Bed is her euphemism for putting Aldy on an electric charger.
This kind of autonomous behavior fuels the debate about whether people ultimately will become slaves to machines.
“By 2030, we are likely to be able to build machines in quantity a million times as powerful as the personal computer of today, sufficient to implement the dreams of those who imagine a world of robot servants. I may be creating tools which will enable the construction of the technology that may replace our species,” wrote Bill Joy, the chief scientist at Sun Microsystems.
Japan, a mecca for any novel contraption, is quickly turning into a testing ground for robotic products marketed as toys. Interacting robots are on fertile ground in a culture whose people are weaned on scores of popular comic cartoons exalting robot heroes and villains.
“Japanese people grew up with robots in comic cartoons and on television. They have a positive reaction to them,” said Rysuke Yokota of Sony’s Incubation Department.
In addition to the robot dog, Japanese can buy a robot cat or a robot fish, a 6-pound silicon sea bream dashing around in a water tank.
Moving up a notch, Nippon Electronic Corporation (NEC) gave a preview of its R-100 robot, 18 inches tall and resembling a moon-faced Russian babushka doll. It walks, recognizes family members, can switch on lights and air-conditioners and informs people when they come home, “There is a message for you on the computer.”
“We are trying to create a robot you can call partner,” an NEC spokesman said.
It would be a pricey one.
“To buy a humanoid robot today would cost you $2 million,” said Sony’s Ken Orii.
Along similar lines, Honda has an experimental robot, an astronaut-like figure that climbs stairs and can be programmed to be a night nurse checking the life signals of patients or elderly people. If something is amiss, the robot sounds the alarm.
In Germany, Klaus, a robot with three arms and three legs, has just passed his driving test, although he still can’t distinguish between red and green traffic lights.
Boston’s IS Robotics is working on a robot that displays a temper when its space is invaded, and there have been experiments with colonies of artificial intelligence robots to see how they interact and learn from one another to perform tasks.
Nowhere on Earth, however, has the robot caught the imagination the way it has in Japan, a country that produces 60 percent of the world’s industrial robots and has a robot population of 710,000 units.
In Japan, customers inevitably storm stores offering new computer games or surrogate toys like the tamagotchi, literally “egg thing,” the robot chicken that had to be fed and nursed around the clock or it would die.
The AIBO is far more sophisticated.
In one experiment, Sony put a score of the pooches in one room, the owners in another. Then they mixed up the toys, which all look the same.
“The owners came in and after watching the dogs for a while, each recognized his own AIBO from the way it behaved,” Orii said.
Orii tries to keep a sensible perspective.
“We don’t want to replace live pets,” he said. “This is only a toy, but the kind of toy that will be in every home within 10 years.”
Still, the relationship between human owners and AIBOs has become uncanny.
Hoshino recalled when Aldy refused to perform tricks for a friend who had come a long way to see the AIBO.
“It was very embarrassing and very impolite,” she said, “so I wrote to Sony, and they sent me a performance chip, a game mode that I insert now in Aldy whenever there are visitors.”
“But this is not my real Aldy,” she added. “The moment the visitors go, I put the original chip back. That’s my real dog.”
Mans new best friend
With a $2,500 U.S. price tag, Sony Corporations new robotic dog, AIBO, is one of the worlds first interactive robots available to the public. Named for the Japanese word for pal, AIBO can respond to external stimulations, display emotional expressions and learn by interacting with humans.
Some of AIBOs features
Motorized tail: Two motors allow movement similar to that of a real dog’s tail.
Legs: Three motors in each leg allow AIBO to walk, sit, stretch, turn over and crawl on its belly.
Miniature speaker: Allows AIBO to speak to humans using a language of musical tones and melodies.
Head: Three motors allow AIBO to look in several directions. The top is touch-sensitive and allows AIBO to recognize when it is being petted or disciplined.
Colored eye lights: Allow AIBO to show six emotional states.
Color video camera: Gives AIBO sight, allowing it to search for its favorite colors and follow its owner.
Distance detector: Helps AIBO find objects and avoid dangers.
Two stereo microphones: Allow AIBO to hear tonal commands from a remote control or from its owner.
Motorized mouth: Opens to allow AIBO to fetch and grab objects.
Internal features
Acceleration sensor: Lets AIBO know when it has fallen over.
24 megabytes of memory: Allows AIBO to develop a personality by remembering events it experiences.
CPU: 64-bit RISC processor
Thermal sensor: Allows AIBO to know when it’s cold or hot.
Revolution detector: Causes AIBO to get sick when turned or spun too much.
Source: Sony Corporation
Chicago Tribune
