Robots Rule interviewed Derek Dotson, one of the original founders of Ugobe who’s now the CEO of Innvo Labs, the subsidiary of Jetta that’s now producing the Pleo. We reported on Monday that the new Pleos now for sale from Innovo are identical to the Pleos sold by Ugobe, but it turns out that the new Pleos actually have a number of minor upgrades:
-The problem with neck wires breaking which affected some Pleos has been fixed
-The problem of the skin separating has been fixed
-The premature wearing of the paint from Pleo’s skin and teeth has been fixed. The new paint should last 3 times longer than the old one.
-The packaging Pleo comes in no longer uses Styrofoam and is biodegradable making it friendly to the environment
-The battery chargers have a new switch with two positions, one for regular charging and another that uses a special charging mode created specifically for those batteries that don’t charge properly. It drains the battery completely and then “force” charges it for 16 hours. This should bring many of the problem batteries back to life, although some batteries aren’t salvageable because they’re just plain dead. Also, the charger can use the old A/C adapter and it can charge the old Ugobe batteries too.
-Due to a change in the hearing system Pleo responds better to your voice when it comes to figuring out where you are (left or right of him).
If you’ve got a Ugobe Pleo and you want an Innovo Pleo, you can upgrade through the “Reincarnation Program” for $245, which will not (repeat: not) preserve your Pleo’s personality traits or learned behaviors.
Derek also talked a little bit about Pleo’s future (i.e. the next model, due out in 2010). Some tidbits on that, after the jump.
[The 2010] model will look the same as Pleo does now except it will have a new paint job and eye color to differentiate it from the current Pleos. Over the coming year we intend to give Pleo more depth to his personality and utilize the sensors better. For example, Pleo doesn’t do a whole lot with the camera in his nose right now. It’s not the hardware since the camera is a good quality camera. However there’s a lot of room for improvement in the software. An example of a specific feature people want badly is getting Pleo to come to you. The 2010 model will do that. Also, Pleo uses power more efficiently which will lead to longer play times. To make Pleo more realistic, Pleo will develop certain character biases at birth so that everyone’s Pleo will be different. As for the sensors, the reason why they are currently underutilized is due to a bottleneck in the serial bus that connects them to Pleo’s processor resources. That’s something we can fix without drastically altering Pleo’s architecture. Once that happens, we can do more with them when it comes to Pleo’s hearing, vision, etc. Beyond 2010 there will certainly be new creatures other than baby robot dinosaurs.
They’d better be careful about giving Pleos inherent character biases, lest they end up with a perception of some Pleos having “better” characters than others. And new creatures other than baby robot dinosaurs beyond 2010? That’s definitely going to be interesting… Personally, I’m still hoping for an addition to the family that’s a little more, you know, carnivorous.
Be sure to click through to read the rest of the interview, which includes info on the warranty for existing Pleos as well as Derek’s perspective on the whole Pleo saga.
[ Robots Rule ]