Audio Interview with Caleb Chung
Here’s an audio interview (MP3 file) with Caleb Chung, one of the creators of Pleo. The interview was conducted on the expo floor at DEMO2006.
In the interview Caleb tells us his definition of innovation is:
The ability to understand the culture around you and understand the trends and how people are changing, and at which point technology becomes cheap enough to enable new products.
Furthermore, he believes that Pleo and Ugobe are at that nexus.
He says Pleo is 18″ long, about the size of a smal cat, he’s a long-neck dinosaur and has life-like skin and movments. The main goal of Pleo is to be a pet and create an emotional bond with its owners. Pelo is also fully autonomous and evolves over time.
Chung also speaks about similiarities and differences between Pleo and Furby, one of his former creations. He says that both were focused on human interaction and that Furby was the genetic ancestor of Pleo, however Pleo is much more advanced than the one-motor Furby.
He goes on to say that the biggest personal hurdle in creating Pleo was coming to grips with the idea that “we are embarking on a new path in history.” This is his dream and He belives that Ugobe and Pleo are poised to change history and how we perceive robots. Chung calls this a paradign shift.
These are some pretty big ambitions from a new company. I’m not convinced it will happen, but you know the cliche, “time will tell.”
