PC Magazine Interviews Ugobe’s Bob Christopher
PC Magazine has published a lengthy interview with Bob Christopher, the CEO and Cofounder of Ugobe.
In the interview they cover how Ugobe differes from WowWee, Ugobe’s laws of robotics, how they plan on creating emotional bonds between users and their products, and availability of SDKs.
We also learn that the product timeframe for Pleo is October or November, with definite shipments in time for Christmas. They also say that the complexity of the robot may be a problem. It’s very detailed and more complex than most things manufactured for a consumer market. They don’t want to cut corners, and they don’t want shortages.
Christopher also says that fine-tuning Pleo’s gearboxes took long hours of work to make them quiet and smooth. We all remember how noisy Furby was. Judging from the videos of Pleo, he’s virtually silent.
When discussing realism, Christopher says thta real-time reaction to events is key. The robot must be able to respond to noises or sights immediately. We expect this from real animals, and Pleo will emulate this.
On the difference between WowWee and Ugobe:
I think Wow Wee’s more focused on this feature-function experience, where you press the button and you make it mad, or press the button and there’s certain things that they can do. Ours is an autonomous feature, it’s actually thinking on its own, where you don’t need a remote control or a joystick to make it do anything.
WowWee’s robots don’t have real AI. It’s all response to direct input. Pleo can think on his own, according to Christopher.
It’s a great read and very informative. Excitement is mounting for Pleo!
October 29th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
the wowwee robots might not be as advanced as pleo, but they are great fun