Unacceptable. UNACCEPTABLE!!
typed for your pleasure on 28 January 2006, at 12.45 pmSdtrk: ‘Vitamin C’ by Can
Sony, ordinarily you are a fine corporate giant, but this time you really dropped the ball.
Well wouldn’t you know it, not even a day after receiving what’s possibly the biggest validation of robotic companions since Petster saved little Timmy from a burning barn back in ’86, it looks like news is surfacing that in Sony’s Q305 fiscal reports they have intentions and supposedly already ceased developing AIBO and QRIO, Engadget’s most beloved of all canine and humanoid robots, respectively. At the risk of sounding terribly insensitive, somehow the prospect of AIBO and QRIO dying actually makes us more heartsick than the news of the 10,000 some-odd jobs Stringer cut reorganizing the electronics giant. Sony, say it ain’t so, say it ain’t so!
P.S. -When Sony America wakes up this morning we’ll be placing some calls.
I would hope that they’ve not done this cos they decided they should be working on more videogame consoles. I mean, Odhinn knows I love my PS2, but I think society’s alright for videogame system technology – between the upcoming PS3 and the XBOLLOX 360, there’s not a whole lot more that can be done as far as console graphics – but what needs to be developed and refined are more personal robots. Videogames are all well and good, but robotics are more of a technological achievement that, in theory, should move society forward towards Being Better.
Also worth reading is that link, err.. linked.. above, concerning the biggest validation of robots.. o, nevermind, I’ll reproduce it here.
Study finds robot pets as good as live ones
If you’ve been telling everyone how you and your Aibo have bonded and have had to endure their looks of shock, relax, you’re not a freak. (Well, at least not because of your Aibo friendship. We can’t comment on any of your other bizarre habits.) Researchers at Purdue University’s veterinary school have found that robo-pets can be as good at providing companionship as live ones. The researchers gave one group of children and teenagers Aibos and another group real pets, and then questioned them on their interactions. Seventy percent of the Aibo users said that the robot dog could be a good companion. The researchers also lent Aibos to a group of senior citizens, who found that they were less depressed and lonely after playing with them. We suspect that all the good cheer had at least something to do with not having to feed or clean up after the bots and the fact that you can yank their batteries when they get too yappy.
That bit of news was nice enough to read, but then I’d noticed that the study didn’t take place in Japan, as I’d initially thought — it was over at Purdue, which hopefully means that Japan’s love of Artifice is gaining ground in the States. Hoorej!
Okay, Osaka Labs and Kokoro co. Ltd., the opportunity window is wiiide open — I want to see an Actroid in every home before 2008. And for those homes that don’t want an Actroid, you can just send them round to mine.
But honestly, Sony — what were you thinking? You aren’t thinking, that’s the problem. And yes, I did want an AIBO of my very own. Not much chance of that now, eh Sony? Wankers
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January 30th, 2006 at 6.25 am
They will regroup and develop a combination of the two. A were-wolf robot.
January 30th, 2006 at 10.37 am
Ho my God. O.o I found him. I saw you on TV! My God that makes me sound like a red neck, doesn’t it? Bleh. -_- So yeah, like hi. ._. Email me, please? You seem…fun.
January 30th, 2006 at 5.02 pm
SafeT –
Ahhh, a werewolfrobo. I think that might’ve been in a tokusatsu series during the Eighties. Probably one of the uchu keiji series, if I remember correctly.
Keilii –
Okay!
January 30th, 2006 at 5.49 pm
NO! MY IDEA! MY IDEA!
February 1st, 2006 at 7.20 pm
hey, you MUST send me a copy of that peanuts panel . . .
or better yet the original . . .
February 2nd, 2006 at 2.04 am
zs etc –
I actually got that Peanuts panel from.. probably from 4chan or iichan, one or the other, so that would be my ‘original’.
Just right-click, and steal it from the article! Steal it! I’ll turn the other way.
Easy, no?