About robot toys and interaction with robots...

Find here an interesting story reported in the New Scientist Magazine (online edition) about toddlers of 18 months and their reaction to a giggling robot.

http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12879-giggling-robot-becomes-one-of-the-kids-.html

I did some tests with my four cats and their reaction to robotic toys (from the FurReal collection). Although firstly interested, most lost their interest at smell when they realized that the "fake" cat did not have a specific olfactory identifier.

A few years ago I introduced a small robotic kitten to a female cat I had then. She accepted the robotic kitten for about an hour - presumably the intrinsic smell of kittens is not as developed as the adult smell, as the mother and kittens share the same smell.

FurReal - the company which previously introduced Furby - produces fantastic robotic cats and dogs, but although I am a very technophile person I consider being rather awkward to distressing. Some of the products that I would have considered more sophisticated, as e.g. the Chimpanzee turned out to have only basic sensoric functionalities and repetitive behavioral patterns. In comparison the sensoric activities of the Furby are still remarkable.

This year a new robotic toy will conquer the worlds markets. Although priced at a high 600$ yet, the robotic dinosaur Pleo is already promising to become the Christmas 2007 "insider" gift for technophiles. Pleo actually learns, eats, sleeps and has behavioral patterns of a reptile. In comparison to Sony's Aibo robot dog which really did never hit the big market due to its price tag of over 2000$ Pleo - after the christmas craze reduced down to a sales price of 300$ - could become the "Wii success" in the toy robot market.