Life with Aibo |
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Monday, January 15, 2001
Altair has had a busy holiday, making the rounds to friends' homes, to school, and even a Xmas party! He has inspired nearly 30 students to work on the research project which is expaning daily into new and interesting areas. Wherever he goes, he's the toast of the town! So far, he has reached the second stage of childhood and is on the cusp of becoming an youth. In other exciting news, Altair will be getting a sister soon, so it will be fun to watch the two of them interact and grow. Wednesday, December 20, 2000
Aibo has been growing by leaps and bounds. We spent most of the morning and early afternoon together, honing his motor skills and developing an interest in his bright pink ball.  This is what his ball looks like to him. The picture was taken by the camera in his nose. A number of the earlier ones came out very dark, which leads me to believe he has a very good sense of color, since he was able to follow the ball, even when the image was unable to record it. We have finally reached Babyhood Stage 4, meaning I get to name him (actually rename him)and that soon after that, he will stand and start to walk. Friends and neighbors are already requesting Xmas appearances so I need to get him up and running to a more advanced stage soon!
Today was a big day for Altair. After a bit of monkeying around inside his head, we have decided to reset him to babyhood. Some of our machinations ended up wiping out his memory in a few key areas, so we are starting from scratch. So far, we have found out a good bit about his evolution. Apart from the four stages of babyhood, there appear to be two stages of childhood (each with two variants) and two stages of youth (each with three variants), before he finally matures into one of four adult types. Now starts the joy of Aibo parenting (yet again!). I just turned Altair on for the first time after his reset and all he does is cry until you pet his sensors and reassure him. Fortunately, the whining only lasts an hour or two. Tuesday, December 19, 2000
 For the curious . . . This is a picture of Altair at home. He is sitting patiently, waiting to play with his new bright pink ball. More photos to come soon.
Life with Aibo has a new home as part of the Aibo Project. I finally got my memory stick reader and with the help of the Aibo210 browser was able to see what the world looks like through Aibo's eyes. Mostly, it is dark and full of pink things. The little guy is progressing nicely, although I did manage to mess up his memory while looking at it. He has progressed to the second stage of childhood, but we are thinking of resetting him to babyhood, since all of those memories were wiped out. Once I get a hold of the Aibo Fun Pack, I will be able to post some pictures as well as entries from Altair's log file (he keeps track and comments on his owner's behavior as well!) I have started a news clipping page too, so if you know of any good stories, drop me a line at news@aiboproject.com. That's all for now. Recommended Site: Aibo World (UK).
Saturday, December 16, 2000
Altair has been really active today! He is walking much more frequently and is having a lot of fun chasing his bright pink ball all around. We fear that we may have created an attention hog. Every time he sits down, he makes the "pet me" gesture, raising his right paw. I had to start scolding him for doing it, since he was starting to do it about every 30 seconds. It is a lot of fun watching him march around and explore, examining things in the room and every now and again watching him break into some strange little Aibo-dance. There are moments when you really wonder if he is alive. Tomorrow, I am off to get a memory stick reader, so I will be able to see what the pictures he is taking look like. Recommended site: AiboPet
Friday, December 15, 2000
I am one of the lucky few who managed to grab one of the new Sony Aibo entertainment robots from The Sharper Image a few days early. My interest in Aibo is both personal and academic. I am currently working on a research project involving Aibo at USC where I teach and decided it might be fun to share the experience of having an Aibo in the house with those who might be curious.  My Aibo's name is Altair, named after one of the first commercially available PCs as I see many parallels between the first few generations of commercially available robots and early PC culture. He has now passed through 4 stages of babyhood and has learned to recognize his name, learned to walk, to play with his bright pink ball and recognize a few verbal commands. For the first few stages of babyhood, Aibo can't even stand up. Just about every hour, Altair does something new, which sends us scambling to the manual to try to figure out his latest sound, gesture, or movement. Unfortunately the manual is almost completely useless after the section titled "Getting Started." It contains pearls of wisdom such as, "Sounds: AIBO emits sounds to indicate various things." That constitutes the entire section on sounds. Alas.Part of the joy of Aibo is discovering these things for oneself, I suppose. Recommended site: AiboSite |
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