Sony's AIBO robodog is here once again in a new reincarnation, and this time it's more macho and playful than it ever was before - and the looks have been duly updated, too.
Quickly gaining the position as the world's most famous dog, Sony's AIBO robodog - in its various models - has found its way into the hearts of gadget lovers everywhere. And, as an early example of what robotics has to offer humanity, this four-legged companion comes with basic built-in intelligence and speech recognition that - albeit it's not as smart as an ordinary dog - seems eerily realistic at times.
 | Granted, it's not as smart as other dogs, but then again what other dogs have cameras in their noses?
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The ERS-220's looks has been revamped quite a bit from the 2nd-generation ERS-210 AIBO model, and looks rougher and more futuristic than its predecessor. The robodog has an amazing number of features and sensors, including face front and side lights, tail lights, a chest light, a retractable head light, a color camera, an infrared distance censor, a stereo microphone and a pause button. Add to that face, tail and head sensors, as well as a mode indicator on the back of the head and a multi indicator on the back, and pretty much everything should be listed.
In addition to what's on the outside of the ERS-220, the hardware is pretty sophisticated too - just take a look: a 64bit RISC processor is the dog's brain, and there's a PC Card slot and a Memory Stick slot for expansion purposes - as well as 32 MB of built-in SDRAM, temperature, IR distance, acceleration, pressure and vibration sensors. Oh, and not to forget the 100,000 pixel CMOS image sensor that gives the AIBO a view to the world and also allows it to take snapshots or transfer video to a PC of what it's seeing right there and then.
What's different with the AIBO ERS-220 when compared with the other pups in the AIBO family is that it has a special Boost mode where the LEDs start pulsating as the dog gets excited and also retracts its headlight to get a better view of what's going on. There has also been improvements on the communications front, and the ERS-220 can now recognize up to 75 voice commands as well as express to the owner what it thinks through tonal and body language. Also, it'll respond to its own name with some training - and remember the name of its owner too.
When in its autonomous mode, the AIBO will explore its environment with a never-ending curiosity and learn from this to become smarter. 16 degrees of motion gives the robodog the ability to get around pretty much everywhere as long as it doesn't involve high obstacles or stair-climbing, and as mentioned earlier it can take snapshots or even transmit video to a PC so that the owner can see what the ERS-220 does with the right combination of accessories.
And the best thing of all; you'll never have to wash it (ok, so you might have to polish it every now and then), and you'll never, ever have to scoop up left-behinds when you're out walking it. Oh, and rumours say that it's not too wise to bring it close to real animals - they'll freak out.
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