Pleo

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In the glamourous and glitzy world of toys where the toy gets all the attention, especially when it's a baby green robot dinosaur, it's important to take note of the upper management behind the toy. That management is the engine that will either make or break a new hit toy because without a solid management team, the long term success of the toy is unlikely.

UGOBE, the company behind the Pleo, has the Dream Team of upper management when it comes to creativity, experience, and the all important manufacturing contacts to make sure there's enough well designed sturdy little Pleo's for all of us.

From a UGOBE press release we can see already the diverse and critically relevant backgrounds of the Advisory Board and Board Of Director line-ups:

"... Established leaders from companies such as Sun Microsystems, Softbank China Venture Capital and ChinaVest Merchant Bank. Its members represent a range of executive experience and engineering talent that have contributed to the success of companies including Apple Computer, Atari Computer (now Warner Communications), General Motors, Lucasfilm Ltd., Macy’s California and Twentieth Century Fox."

An analysis of the companies listed:

• Deep talent here in the areas of modern computing and gaming with names like Apple and Atari
• Strong manufacturing experience from one of the largest car manufacturers, General Motors.
• Solid consumer retailing experience courtesy of the retail powerhouse Macy's.
• Supreme storytelling talent via Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century Fox who have been making movies that have tugged at our heart-strings for years.

Fairness dictates that I give a complete listing of the people involved:

UGOBE Board of Directors:

• Bob Christopher, CEO & co-founder, UGOBE
• Caleb Chung, inventor & co-founder, UGOBE
• Gordon Radley, former president, Lucasfilm Ltd.
• Chauncey Shey, CEO, Softbank China Venture Capital (SBCVC); co-founder, UTStarcom
• Joe Ye, president, UTStarcom (APAC)
  

UGOBE Advisory Board:

• Bill Hilliard, managing partner, Hilliard Equities / Sonn-Hill Consulting
• Steven Mayer, co-founder, Atari Computer & Activision
• Curtis Sasaki, vice president, Sun Web Properties, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
• Phil Schlein, partner, US Venture Partners (USVP); former president, Macy’s California
• Abraham Wei, senior managing director, ChinaVest Merchant Bank
  

High power talent in the crucial areas of robotics, toy design, retailing, computing, and manufacturing. Deep ties to the production powerhouse known as the Asia. And to top it all off, they have Caleb Chung the genius inventor behind the smash hit toy the Furby, as their lead inventor. I'd say UGOBE's chances of success are pretty good, don't you think?

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According to UGOBE CEO Bob Christopher, Caleb Chung learned soon after the smash success of his Furby creation that people are more fascinated by life than with features and functions. So critical is this premise to Pleo's soul that they even named Pleo's operating system "LifeOS".

The term LifeOS was coined by Christopher and is arguably the first operating system ever created based on emulating emotions. Currently it has more than 50 artificial intelligence algorithms whose sole purpose are to simulate emotions and model the behavior of the chemical hormones in a living being.

Not only did UGOBE consult and use computer programmers and robot engineers in the creation of Pleo, they also brought in expert animators, scientists, and biologists to make Pleo as real as they possibly could. This explains why Pleo is so incredibly lifelike and so different from any other robot or artificial life form that preceded it.

For Pleo the robot dinosaur, the future's so bright, he's gotta wear shades!

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Finally, a nice juicy 4 minute long Pleo video with UGOBE's Caleb Chung, playing with his creation. There is very little talking in this video so you can get a solid look at the adorable robot dinosaur, or artificial life form, in action. Caleb pets Pleo, plays with his feet, strokes his back and tail, and let's him explore the table he is on. At one point, you see Pleo nervously examining the edge of the table, afraid to move forward. You can see this video on the popular science web site. You will need Apple's QuickTime media player to view the movie. If you don't have it, there is a link on the page to download the free player.

Pleo does seem to have a penchant for gently nibbling fingers, at least Caleb's, and for exploring his world. When Caleb plays with Pleo's feet it's a joy to see Pleo react like a kitten at the attention. I have not figured out why yet, but Pleo seems even more adorable and cuddly in this video than in the previous Demo 2006 video. When Pleo gently goes to sleep at the end of the video, you'll be torn between wanting to wake him up so you can see more of him, and letting the poor little guy get his rest.

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To understand Pleo you have to understand the company behind it, UGOBE. They are very passionate about Pleo and when you see their laws for what a UGOBE Life Form must be, it's easy to understand the intensity of thought behind Pleo's construction. The three laws are:

• A UGOBE Life form shall have the ability to feel and convey emotions. Through a combination of physical appearance, emotive gesture and artificial intelligence, UGOBE Life forms will speak in this very human dialect.
  
  
• A UGOBE Life form will be aware of itself and its environment. Through a combination of sensors including sight, sound, touch and motion, a UGOBE Life form will be able to feel, explore and interpret its world.
  
  
• A UGOBE Life form will evolve over time. As its environment and human interactions change, a UGOBE Life form will learn, adapt and change with them.
  

If I had not seen the Demo.com video of Pleo I would have looked at these three laws as a nice marketing tool on their part. But, as I watch that video, if I treat the three laws as a test, Pleo passes that test with flying colors. What is most telling is UGOBE's primary mandate for their robot dinosaur, the ability to feel and convey emotions.

From the video I am sure that Pleo does indeed convey emotions so, does Pleo feel emotions? Perhaps soon we will be asking "Does Pleo dream?". I don't know the answer to that, but I can say with certainty that millions of children and adults will be dreaming of Pleo.

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UGOBE has recently updated their release date for the Pleo. The original release date was the third quarter of this year. That date has been pushed back slightly to the beginning of fourth quarter of this year (2006). A little later, but still plenty of time before that all important holiday season.

For those of you that are curious about Pleo's background as a real life dinosaur, Pleo is modeled after a one week old baby Camarasaurus, which means "chambered lizard". The Camarasaurus is a gentle herbivore from the Jurassic period of Earth's history. It is interesting that Pleo has already achieved fame enough to be noted in Wikipedia's page for the Camarasaurus.

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CNN has a good write-up on some of the more exciting features of UGOBE's Pleo. Their Pleo article highlights three very powerful features that are part of the reason the Pleo is so endearing and life-like:

• 38 sensors to detect light, motion, touch and sound
• Eight processors that can handle 60 million calculations per second
• UGOBE will be continually creating new personalities for the Pleo which you can transfer from the Internet to your Pleo through its USB port based SD-card slot

Stay tuned for more, it will only get better from here.

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I expect Pleo to be loved by everyone and especially by the ladies. Whether it's a maternal instinct thing or just because Pleo is so adorable, here's an example showing how women react to Pleo:


-- photo author miss_rogue - (?)