23.11.2001

The Gist: Man's best friend? More like T2's best friend. Looking more like a guard dog for Arnie's next Terminator movie than a cute robot pet this time around, Sony's latest Aibo, the ERS-220, is a dog's dinner of flashy chrome and blinking lights that has apparently been designed to present an image of the "near future." Sony's Shoji Kawamori is the designer responsible for Aibo's scary, new futuristic look. It's starting to get a bit confusing now, what with four separate Aibo "Entertainment Robot" models available, so to keep things simple, we'll just note that the ERS-220 is sort of like the "flagship" Aibo, being the most expensive, the most Japanese anime-inspired, and the only one users can actually control remotely, using a PC and the optional LAN interface PC card (which you stick into your K9 -- just don't ask where). With about 20 LED lamps dotted over his face, tail, and back -- one of them called a "retractable headlight" -- robot pet owners can now steer their Aibo around the living room using the view from the 100,000-pixel CMOS sensor in its head to navigate. The 220 can still do its autonomous thang, if you'd rather it just potter around your house at will, sniffing at stuff. There are all sorts of software and accessories available now for the ERS Aibos, but by far the best, in my opinion, is the ERS-220E1 Transform Kit, which, for the princely sum of 120,000 yen (available early December) provides new head, tail, and leg units to allow ER210 Aibo owners to turn their superseded models into the new 210 version.
 

© 2001 Grieger - Alle Rechte vorbehalten - Alle Angaben ohne Gewähr
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