PleoBot.com - Pleo The Dinosaur

I got my Pleo. Will post soon with results.

Here is a list of Pleo’s “life stages”, taken from the official instruction manual:

Life Stages

Pleo has three life stages, and his progress depends on your level of
interaction. Listen for his first sounds, look for his first steps, watch
how he adjusts to his world. As Pleo progresses through each
stage, he exhibits a broader range of movement and behaviors.

The Three Pleo Life Stages

Stage 1 – Birth
Duration: First 5-10 min., approx (depending on level of active interaction)

What to Expect:
Pleo opens his eyes to both you and the world for the first time. He
starts to adapt to his environment. He is very slow, and his sensors are
not very responsive yet. The more you pet and nurture Pleo in this stage
the more confident he becomes and the faster he will develop. Pleo is
finished “hatching” when he is fully awake and stands up on all four feet.

Stage 2 – Hatchling
Duration: 30-45 min., approx

What to Expect:
Pleo starts to exhibit basic behaviors and needs. He begs to be
fed, starts to walk, explores his environment, takes short naps like
a baby, and starts to exhibit a wider range of emotions.

Stage 3 – Juvenile
Duration: Indefinitely; the rest of his life

What to Expect:
Pleo enters into his final stage of development. As he expands his
capacity to learn, he exhibits a full range of movement and behaviors.
He begins asserting a personality. You can’t go wrong (aside
from physically mistreating Pleo), so take your time to observe,
play and learn about Pleo.

Here’s a list of the things we are told not to do to Pleo, from the instruction manual:

• Abuse Pleo
• Get Pleo wet (cross off trips to the swimming pool)
• Throw, drop, or violently shake Pleo (isn’t this the same as #1)
• Sit on Pleo (awww … I was looking forward to this)
• Place Pleo near heat or flames (e.g. wall heaters, floor heaters, fires, stoves)
• Place Pleo in sand, soil, or mud (or water (see 2nd item). At least air is ok)
• Leave Pleo with other pets or animals capable of biting or damaging him (what about another Pleo?)
• Risk overheating Pleo by covering him with a blanket during play (what if he gets cold?)
• Allow small children to play with Pleo unsupervised

Please note: Failure to abide by these guidelines may void Warranty.

Seriously, doesn’t this seem a bit extreme?

Note: Looks like Engadget totally beat me to this. Darn!

Fast Company has listed Pleo as a possible Christmas hype toy. What do you think?

Furby creator Caleb Chung is back with a robotic dinosaur–the Pleo’s marketers prefer to call it a “life form”–that’s stirring some of the year’s biggest buzz. Modeled on a juvenile camarasaur, the Pleo has two microprocessors and nearly 40 sensors. All that wiring means the creature can develop its own personality based on its experiences and respond to stimuli–speech, touch, screaming–from people as well as other Pleos. Artificial “life forms” don’t come cheap; the Pleo costs $349.

Here’s an article about Pleo on CNN Money’s website.

The 20-inch-long toy is a much-anticipated robotic device named Pleo, and it will finally ship next month to consumers after a year’s delay. Created by the same team who brought the world the Furby, the Pleo will also mark an advance in robotics, as it packs much of the functionality of far more expensive robotics toys into a much lower cost design.

The article mainly compares Pleo to Sony’s Aibo. David Calkins says Pleo, “is about one-fifth the cost of the Aibo, but it still has about half of Aibo’s functionality.”

Another interesting tidbit is that Pleo’s software was written in a programming language called “Pawn.” Robots.net has more info on this programming language and how it might be used on Pleo.

I4U News is reporting that Pleo will be featured on the Good Morning America show tomorrow morning (Thurs. Nov. 29th). This is a major American morning news show, and should bolster Pleo sales quite nicely. If you’re planning on buying a Pleo for Christmas, you’d better buy now! Due to the limited number of Pleo’s available, they may sell out.

Note: It looks like this may have gotten bumped to Friday, the 30th or later.

Pleo was featured on an episode of BoingBoing TV. They went to the Maker Faire in Austin, TX and took some video. Check it out below:

I just got a “30 day ship notice” email from Ugobe! Everyone that pre-ordered Pleo should have gotten a notice from Ugobe letting you know that Pleo will be shipping in a little under 30 days. This is a good move by Ugobe, and fosters some good will, by letting folks that have given up on Ugobe/Pleo back out of their original preorders.

Also in the email is a brief comment that hints that Ugobe is quite a bit behind in their original goals. The email says, “The software that will be in Pleo when he ships this year allows for only subtle shaping of personality and temperament.” We’ll have to continue to wait for Ugobe to release software updates that will unlock Pleo’s full functionality - like the ability to evolve and learn.

Also mentioned in the email is that Pleo’s skin will develop wear patterns. We’re told this is normal and it “isn’t a problem.” Is this an unexpected manufacturing mistake? Ugobe has also released the instruction manual for Pleo. You can find a copy here.

If you have yet to order a Pleo, you can find him at Trossen Robotics or on Technorati Tags: pleo toys trossen robotics ugobe

Well, I must admit that I’ve been rather lazy when it comes to putting up a new poll, but here are the results from this last poll:

When Pleo comes out, will you ..

* Buy right away!: 54% (86)
* Buy after the price comes down: 27% (43)
* Wait till I see if it’s any good: 15% (23)
* Not buy at all: 4% (6)

Total Votes : 158

I put up this poll back in January (Wow! Time flies …), before the Pleo price increase was announced. So, the results are probably skewed by respondents from before and after the increase.

There is also a new poll up. Happy voting!

There’s lots of pictures of Pleo from the Maker Faire in Austin. You can check them out on Flickr.

How about this shot from steevithak?

Don’t forget you can also preorder Pleo from Trossen Robotics or Amazon.com!