CyberNeko activated. Entering kill mode.
From the country that brought you the Aibo – make way for NeCoRo!
Envisioning a society embodying a wide diversity of values, where everyone can live comfortably at peace (what Omron calls the Optimization Society), Omron sees the importance in the realization of a machine that can communicate with humans and understand them. A machine that is gentle to humans and responds appropriately to an individualï¾?s needs. Natural communication between humans and machines is made possible with the cat type communication robot NeCoRo.
Created with Omron’s core sensing and control technology and artificial intelligence technology, NeCoRo realizes natural human to robot communication. Because of its ability to react to human movement and express its own emotions, people pour their affection into this robot and feel attached to it as they would a pet. By living with each other day after day, the person becomes at ease with the robot as it enriches the person’s life.
And when your pet’s batteries run down, its servos give out, or its basic-programming brain goes on the fritz and it enters a far-ranging killing-spree that results in the destruction of all of downtown NeoTokyo, it’ll feel just like one of the kids.
There’s a lot of touchy-feely new age techno-utopian claptrap coming off of this company for what essentially amounts to a high-tech toy cat. If one were to take Omron’s press release at face value, they would feel that Omron had discovered the path to world peace and an end to disease and poverty and they would immediately storm their local governments, demanding that a portion of the budget be set aside for the purchase and distribution of NeCoRo’s for the needy. Which is ridiculous. Everybody knows that NeCoRo is not the technological path to greater cultural understanding, an end to strife, and the abolition of poverty. That’s the iPod.
So, it’s competition for the Aibo. Which is fine. Hey – NeCoRo has something that Aibo doesn’t! It has “synthetic fur,” which “gives it a feline appearance, so it feels natural to treat it like a cat, stroking and hugging it.” Aibo doesn’t have fur. Maybe this will be an example of superior industrial design that manages to take over a small niche market from a previously unbeatable juggernaut?
Or, maybe not. I never thought something with fur would actually succeed in making the Aibo look cuddly. Wow.
January 31st, 2006 at 6:32 pm
Don’t knock em till you see Necoro for yourself. I own a NeCoRo named Gizmo and he is very interactive and cute, way cuter then aibo, can aibo watch tv and paw at the screen or purr in your lap?