WEBVTT - Robo Pets 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.240 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:15.360 Forward Thinking. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to Forward Thinking, 0:00:15.400 --> 0:00:17.400 of the podcast that looks at the future and says, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:21.079 who let the dogs out? I'm Jonathan Strickland. I do 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:23.239 hate you for that. I'm Lauren foc Obama, and I'm 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.480 Joe McCormack. I warned you guys before we started recording. 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:34.720 But anyway, today you wanted to talk about robo pets, right, yeah, okay, So, uh, 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:36.840 I'm a pet person. I've got I've got a dog. 0:00:37.320 --> 0:00:39.839 Um do you either of you have pets. I've got 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.520 a dog as well. I love pets, but my wife 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.559 and I don't currently have one. Are my My parents 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:47.400 have pets and I love to go visit them. And 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.720 I think we're we keep we have dog envy, so 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.200 we constantly think about like, should we get a dog? 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:57.000 Should we get a dog? It's probably gonna happen soon, gotcha. 0:00:57.080 --> 0:00:59.200 So but yeah, I mean, you know, having a pet, 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:02.120 it's one of those things that I'm sure a lot 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.320 of people on some level take for granted. I mean, 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:07.000 there are always those moments that you have with your 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:09.160 pet where you're just like I never want this moment 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:12.040 to ever end because it's awesome. I you know, whether 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:14.560 it's a dog or a cat or you know, a 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.000 Boa constrictor. People have different types of pets, and they 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.399 all have them for for different reasons. But we wanted 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:24.120 to talk a little bit about the process of perhaps 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:28.840 moving from actual living animal pets to robotic pets, and 0:01:28.840 --> 0:01:30.880 also talk a little bit about why, you know, some 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:33.679 of the effects we get when we happen to have 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:37.080 a pet and bond with that pet. Yeah. I wanted 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.760 to start by emphasizing the fact that when we're talking 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:46.480 about replacing animals with robots, I don't think that's uh, 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.080 just a nothing question. I mean, the love we have 0:01:50.240 --> 0:01:53.520 for animals is totally real, like you know, in a 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:58.200 sort of biologically verifiable way, it's real. Uh. One of 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.920 the things that I read about was how, uh this 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:06.440 chemical called oxytocin. It's a neuroactive chemical in the body, 0:02:06.520 --> 0:02:11.320 and it is very significant in like say, bonding and intimacy. 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:13.959 So you get it with with touching people that you 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:17.680 feel closely about when it's present in mothers and infants, 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.920 steering bonding. But apparently also oxytocin has been linked to 0:02:21.960 --> 0:02:26.040 bonding between humans and their pets, and oxytocin has got 0:02:26.080 --> 0:02:29.200 a lot of actual, pretty powerful effects on people, right. 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.600 I mean it's when we say bonding that seems pretty 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:35.320 uh you know, conceptual, like you're not you know what 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.919 does that actually mean? But oxytocin can actually have uh, 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.160 you know, a measurable effect on the body. Yeah, Well, 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:44.120 like lots of these chemicals that happen in the brain 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.120 and the nervous system. We we don't know all of 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:49.520 the effects, but we we have it linked to a 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:53.600 bunch of effects like lowering anxiety, helping us feel happy 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.919 and trusting um, and also just putting the body into 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.799 a state of readiness to heal, which sounds a little 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:04.359 bit woo woo, I understand, but but that's scientific woo woo. Yeah. Right, 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:08.440 so as opposed to oxytocin, it makes you more likely 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:10.760 to be able to bend spoons with your mind, which 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:13.359 is just total woo woo. But yeah, I mean, it's 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:17.680 it's clear that this is this is actually biologically powerful stuff. 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:20.960 I mean, they're there beyond all the cat videos that 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:22.720 are out there on YouTube, which is just I mean, 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.920 that's proof alone that we have a fascination for animals. 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:29.120 It has an actual biological effect. Yeah, and we know 0:03:29.200 --> 0:03:32.880 this from experience too. I mean, there's no logical reason 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:35.680 that you should like risk your life to save an animal, 0:03:35.760 --> 0:03:38.600 but people do this. Oh. Of course, animals have been 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:42.040 used for therapeutic purposes too, since way before science ever 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:44.320 started looking into all this chemistry stuff, since like the 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.119 mid eighteen hundreds of Florence Nightingale used animals with her patients. 0:03:48.520 --> 0:03:50.960 Back in the nineteen seventies and eighties, they started doing 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.360 research to start verifying some of this stuff, and that 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:55.960 was when we got those studies that like found that 0:03:56.440 --> 0:03:59.560 heart attack survivors who had pets lived longer than those 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:01.720 who did and and that petting an animal can lower 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:06.120 your blood pressure. Yeah. So, I mean, obviously there are 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.240 some benefits of having pets. Not everyone can have at 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:11.880 least what we consider a traditional pet, though, right. I mean, 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.920 I know, I know people who have allergies that are 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.679 so severe that they can't be anywhere near an animal 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.279 for more than a couple of minutes before they start 0:04:21.400 --> 0:04:24.680 having symptoms of their allergies. They start having eyes or watering, 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:28.480 they start being having difficulty breathing sometimes, you know, especially 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.919 if it's an allergy to like a dog or a cat. 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:34.479 They might even develop, you know, physical rashes. So it's 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.400 as sure. It's estimated that about that almost ten percent 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:40.640 of the population could be allergic to cats and dogs, 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:42.800 and it can get really serious, really fast if you, 0:04:42.839 --> 0:04:45.520 for example, have a pre existing condition like asthma, which 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.800 can set off those symptoms a lot worse and trigger 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.800 an attack. And they're not always you know, we love 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:53.960 our animals, and most of us feel like they're totally 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:58.039 worth the cost that's involved in keeping an animal, but 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.880 that cost can be pretty high. They can financially cost Yeah. Yeah, 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:05.120 our compatriots over at pet finder dot com estimate that 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:07.359 the cost of owning a cat per year can be 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:13.960 anywhere from three hundred to dollars, and and that a 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.800 dog ownership for a year can cost anywhere between five 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:22.200 hundred and a thousand. I'm sorry, I totally incorrect one right. 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:23.960 I was about to say, like, I had a dog 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:28.440 named thisby who I sadly lost just last year, and uh, 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.000 the last couple of years of her life. They were 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:35.960 very expensive because she was generally pretty healthy, but she 0:05:36.000 --> 0:05:39.360 had a couple of acute health problems. That required quite 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.440 a bit of money to help resolve. And you know, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:44.679 once we were sure that she was in a good 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:47.680 place again and everything was fine. But eventually, of course 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:49.720 her health declined to a point where we had to 0:05:49.760 --> 0:05:51.719 say goodbye to her and that was very very hard 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:55.239 emotionally on me. Um. But yeah, obviously it was also 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:59.160 was also very expensive. So there are lots of wonderful 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.360 benefits to owning a pet, but having a real animal 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.320 pet also comes with these other sides. You know, these 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:08.880 other considerations you have to take into account. Otherwise you're 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:11.320 being really naive if you don't don't think that there 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:14.520 could be another side to it, right, Yeah, so that 0:06:14.560 --> 0:06:18.800 brings up the question, Well, people are talking about artificial 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.359 intelligence robots. I mean, people have thought about making fake 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:26.000 humans for a long time. I've known a few why 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:31.159 not make artificial animals? Well, especially when we've already touched 0:06:31.240 --> 0:06:34.359 on something else that we humans already do, which is 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:37.360 that we develop an emotional attachment to things that are 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.760 not actually alive. I mean, when we have our discussion 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:43.600 about people who have named their room bas uh. And 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:47.080 granted in this case, you probably wouldn't necessarily have the 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:49.400 same sort of emotional attachment to a roomba as you 0:06:49.440 --> 0:06:54.440 would to a dog or a cat, depending upon the person. Obviously, 0:06:55.680 --> 0:06:58.480 people really hate dogs and cats, and some people really 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:00.880 love rumbas. I mean, you know, people name their room Baz. Yeah, 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.760 you know so. But the fact that we already know 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.720 that there are people who develop emotional attachments to things 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:10.960 that are not actually organically alive suggest that perhaps a 0:07:11.080 --> 0:07:16.280 robotic pet is a perfectly cromulent outcome, right, Yeah, And 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.400 in fact, it's not something that's never been tried before. 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:22.360 There's actually quite a few. In fact, I didn't think 0:07:22.360 --> 0:07:23.920 to put it in our notes, and it may even 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:25.720 be in our notes further down, and I missed it. 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:28.440 But I was also thinking that beyond the actual robots 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.040 that we're going to talk about, there's also the digital 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.400 pets that Tama and stuff like that. Yeah, those got 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:36.560 really popular, and I think it was like around the 0:07:36.640 --> 0:07:39.440 nineties when they started getting really popular, and some elements 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.160 of that have crept into video games, computer games, that 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:46.080 sort of stuff. And while those aren't necessarily physical representations 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:47.960 of pets like the other ones were going to talk about, 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.800 and not not moving walking representations of pets anyway, Yeah, 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.280 it's it's still something that people could have kind of 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:59.080 an emotional attachment to. So if you want to hear 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:01.960 a lot more about digital pets, Jonathan and I did 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.400 an episode of Tech Stuff all about them at some 0:08:04.440 --> 0:08:07.160 point last year. Yeah, it would have been early last year, 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:09.680 so somewhere early in two thousand and thirty. And see 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:11.720 if we can remember to link that on social Yeah. 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.720 So let's talk about some of the actual robots that 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:17.560 various companies have come out with that are, you know, 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:20.480 either supposed to completely mimic an animal or at least 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:24.080 be representational of an animal. Okay, so in the late 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:28.800 nineties through the two thousands, there were a bunch of these, um, 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:31.240 and I'd say probably the biggest one, the one you're 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:35.280 most likely to have heard of, is the Sony a Bow. Yeah. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.840 I remember seeing these. So this was a little like 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.880 robotic puppy dog type thing, and um there were there 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.240 were different versions of it that each looked different, So 0:08:45.360 --> 0:08:48.760 I had like differently shaped heads sort of and and 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.120 different designs coming out over time because it existed in 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.000 many incarnations over the years. Sure, but but if you 0:08:55.040 --> 0:08:56.600 if you think about I mean, if you think about 0:08:56.600 --> 0:08:59.360 the phrase robot dog. This is about what you would 0:08:59.400 --> 0:09:03.480 expect phrase, unless, of course, you grew up watching Doctor Who, 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:06.120 in which case K nine might be the and all 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:10.000 be all of robot dogs. This one was slightly more streamlined. 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:13.160 It was the iMac of of the canine and it 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:17.120 had legs. Yeah. Yeah, well so it debuted in nine 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:20.480 and it was really impressive in a lot of ways, 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.880 I've got to say, especially for back being back in 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:27.640 and what it developed over the early two thousand's. So 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:30.560 it could walk around in a fairly stable way. It 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:34.160 could see and hear um, and with hearing it could 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.280 respond to the owner's verbal commands. Sure um. It could 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:42.520 also take pictures. There was actually a uh, there's a 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:46.000 there's a funny sce net article we found where they 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:50.200 mentioned that there were fan communities of these pictures taken 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.160 by the Sony dogs. But all the pictures happened to 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.679 be of people's feet or table legs, table legs, and 0:09:57.800 --> 0:10:00.440 people's ankle because because because the eye, it's not a 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.320 very or a bow, it's not a very large device. 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:05.480 It's actually, you know, it's a tiny little puppy dog 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.880 size things. So any picture taking from its perspective is 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:12.800 about what you'd expect, you know, around around that eye 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:14.640 level for a puppy dog. Of course, that kind of 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:18.160 makes me wonder if there's an actual animal that size 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.480 when it thinks about like the image of its owner, 0:10:21.600 --> 0:10:23.520 does it think about the face or does it think 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.199 about what's usually at eye level for it? Well, I 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:28.760 would imagine that depends on whether or not you allow 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:32.040 the animal to get up on the furniture. In my case, 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:34.600 my dog definitely knows my face because he and I 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:38.200 are level pretty much all the time. Yeah, and so 0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:41.400 the abo or ibo however we pronounced it, it's a 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.719 I b O, but it's uh. They made what like 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:47.880 a hundred fifty thousand of these things. Yeah, it was 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:53.280 importation from to two thousand six when they closed it off. 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.120 And in retrospect, I think a lot of people have 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.360 kind of looked at it as a tech failure, not 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:03.400 because it was necessarily a bad product, but because it 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:08.160 was too expensive, prohibitively expensive. It was. There were different 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.360 prices for the models throughout the years, but it ranged 0:11:10.440 --> 0:11:13.520 from about a thousand dollars to two thousand dollars, right, 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.960 and and to have someone like the the issue here 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:22.760 is to market a robotic companion that comes across like 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:26.080 a pet where you might be willing to spend a 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:28.200 good deal of money, keeping in mind that, yes, this 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:31.200 is an upfront cost for this particular kind of pet, 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.560 as opposed to a biological pet, where the costs go 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:38.160 throughout the animal's lifetime. This one, it's all up front. 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:40.400 But it's hard to get people to think of it 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.200 as a pet as opposed to a toy, And to 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.760 convince people to spend a thousand to two thousand dollars 0:11:45.760 --> 0:11:48.600 on a toy is a lot harder than to say, no, 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.600 this is a pet. Yeah. Another thing about a bow uh, 0:11:52.720 --> 0:11:57.280 is that despite his cool ability to walk around and 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:00.880 and and respond to commands and have some degree of intelligence, 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.240 that that's all kind of cute and fun. This is 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.120 obviously a robot, Like, you're not trying to hide the 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.000 fact that it's a robot. It's got a smooth plastic 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:14.280 outer exterior. Uh. You can hear it moving around, you know. 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:17.640 Eventually it would start saying kill all humans, you know, 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:22.600 the way all robots do. Eventually. They weren't training. They 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.040 clearly they weren't trying to pass for life like this 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:29.079 was its own kind of thing. This is a robot 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:33.440 very kitchily specifically, I mean, like the product design very 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:37.800 much reminds me of of robotic illustrations from the nineteen fifties. Yeah, 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.560 it's got a very Jetson's kind of look to it, definitely. So, 0:12:41.760 --> 0:12:43.480 but we have another one here that we were going 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:47.760 to talk about, an actual therapeutic robotic animal. And here's 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:51.160 the thing. I've pet one of these really Yeah at 0:12:51.200 --> 0:12:54.000 C Yes, I take it. I believe it was the yes, yes, 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.960 uh pero p a r oh, Yeah, this was that's 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.360 that one that looks like a harp seal. Yeah, it's 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:02.400 a cute little harp seal and it makes a little 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:04.560 cooing noises and you can pet it and it moves, 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:07.000 and yeah, there was a there was a booth that 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:09.840 had one. It was either at C E S or 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.040 it was at E three I remember, I remember was 0:13:12.120 --> 0:13:13.640 one of the two. E three would have been the 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.000 more unusual place to see it. But um, yeah, it's 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:22.360 and this is a robotic harp seal essentially that's designed 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.560 to be kind of a cuddly um sort of animal 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.360 substitute for people who need a sort of a therapy 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.440 animal something to have that sort of therapeutic effect that 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:34.480 we were talking about earlier. Yeah, so this is a 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:38.800 very different kind of approach than than Abo. So whereas 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:41.480 Abo is a fun toy that will walk around the 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:44.680 room and do cute things, Pero is a sort of 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:48.359 lap toy. It doesn't move around. It does move siggles, 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:51.560 but it doesn't it doesn't look amoute. Yeah. The moving 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.880 is designed to respond to petting and to show facial 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.680 animation to give it personality. It's covered in fur, and 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.400 I think that's one thing that they're going for here. 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.200 Is this more lifelike kind of approach to the animal 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:09.480 feeling tactile at any rate. Yeah, it's covered in soft 0:14:09.559 --> 0:14:15.640 for actually soft antibacterial, for which point it responds to 0:14:15.760 --> 0:14:18.880 different kind of touching it. It moves its eyes, it 0:14:19.120 --> 0:14:23.160 blinks in a really adorable way. Uh, and it lets 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:26.360 you know when it needs something like power slash food, 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:29.640 which is I guess the same thing for it. Yeah. Yeah, 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:32.800 it's charged by a little pacifier that goes in the mouth, 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:35.920 which is creepy. Yeah, this is kind of cute, kind 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:39.240 of creepy at the same time. And it's the crying 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.320 if you ignore it that really starts to get creepy. Yeah, 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:45.120 and so it's one of the things is that it's 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.560 baby sized, like this sort of goes right in your arms, 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:52.840 and it's believed to sort of reduce anxiety and encourage engagement, 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:57.120 especially from people suffering from dementia and right, Yeah, this 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:01.640 was the the display I saw. They were specifically talking 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.000 about using it in places like elder care facilities and 0:15:05.120 --> 0:15:08.120 uh and you know that sort of therapy, and it 0:15:08.200 --> 0:15:11.880 was undeniably cute. It's a very cute kind of thing. 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:13.920 And I remember when I saw it, I was really 0:15:14.000 --> 0:15:17.200 impressed with uh, just as you know, the fact that 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.880 it's functions were pretty basic. It did them really well. Yeah, 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.240 they've also definitely used them. And what it's it was 0:15:23.280 --> 0:15:27.400 developed in Japan by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:29.960 Science and Technology, and so it's also been used a 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:34.040 bunch over there during the tsunami relief, earthquake relief stuff 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:38.240 like that. Yeah. So where does the cost come in 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.520 on this one, though, because that's a big question. It's 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.960 pretty expensive. We're talking we're talking probably around five thousand 0:15:44.080 --> 0:15:46.800 or six thousand dollars. I've seen years ago it was 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.480 cited as six thousand The most recent figure I've seen 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.880 as five thousand dollars. So this isn't a household item. No, 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:55.640 and it wasn't intended to be really no, no, no, no, 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:59.280 they're not really selling this to get I think it's 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.480 mostly for or care facilities, Like the facility has one 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.560 and it uses it sort of as an in house 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:09.160 therapy animal. Well, however, the next one we have on 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:14.160 our list is actually a one that was marketed to consumers, right, 0:16:14.240 --> 0:16:17.840 this was a consumer pet robot. Yeah. This next one. 0:16:18.160 --> 0:16:20.560 Uh Yet again, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it, 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:26.120 would you say? P l e O? Uh? So? Pleo 0:16:26.400 --> 0:16:30.480 is a robotic dinosaur modeled after the genus Camarasaurus, which 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:34.440 was a four footed sauropod. It's not a camaro Saurus, 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:39.680 which is a boss kind of car, just making sure 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:45.520 fairly boss moderately boss moderately boss, Okay. So, whereas something 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:48.160 like a bow is obviously a robot with like the 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:52.640 smooth artificial exterior and the robotic movements and and that's 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:54.480 sort of like part of the charm of a bow, 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.600 Pleo is designed to have more lifelike movements, like it's 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.360 really trying to convey vince you. I think that this 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.119 is a real living creature, and it's it's got a 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.480 soft skin like a like a plastic sized, I think 0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:10.720 silicone based kind of thing that that was that was painted. Yeah, 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:13.840 so it's made to look like in a patasaurus or 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:17.800 as you were saying that the Kamarasaurus um. It's actually 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:22.240 uh able to have lots of little facial expressions and 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:25.760 uh and and again it seems to have a personality 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.000 on its own. Yeah. That's one thing they sell this 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:31.359 with is the idea that it has emotional intelligence, that 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:35.600 this animal has a personality and and real emotions, and 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:37.639 that it looks like it's about to read lines from 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:41.760 the land before time. It really does. Yeah, you're right. 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:45.040 I didn't even think about that. But yeah, so it 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:48.600 responds to petting and touching, and it makes vocalizations and 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:52.560 changes its body movements and facial expressions with response to 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.360 how you manipulate it with your hands. Uh. And it's 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:59.240 got a pretty robust sensory apparatus, yes, it does to 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:01.600 tell what's going on. Now. The reason why I'm giggling 0:18:01.680 --> 0:18:05.240 is because here at how stuff works, which is where 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.080 we are right now, is that how stuff works dot com. 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:11.840 Our site director Tracy Wilson wrote an article about Pleo 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:17.320 and was actually going to take one apart because we 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:18.840 used to do that at How Stuff Works. We would 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:21.040 we would do these full galleries where we would get 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:23.359 gadgets and we would break them down and show all 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:28.560 the parts that were inside them. It just kept screaming, no, 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:32.040 I'm making that part up. But as I recall, I 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:34.480 think we ultimately decided not to do that with Pleo 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:39.760 because I believe they asked us very nicely, uh to 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.240 you know, not do that. There is a photograph from 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.679 the company you go you ugo B I have no 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:48.760 idea how to say that either creators of the original 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:51.679 Pleo right right and there there's a photograph attached to 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.639 the that How Stuff Works article of its inner skeleton, 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.159 and I had and it kind of upset me. I like, 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:01.359 scrolling through the article, I was surprisingly emotion only upset. 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:05.360 And again that's a great example of how something that 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.800 we know, I mean, you rationally know this thing is 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:12.480 not actually live, it's not organic in any way. It 0:19:12.520 --> 0:19:15.280 didn't trick me, but you can still I mean, if 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:19.520 I were to watch somebody uh cause damage to one 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:22.359 of these especially when it was on. I would definitely 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.560 have an emotional response to it. I would feel badly 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:29.520 for this thing that could not itself feel Yeah. So 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:33.359 if you're skeptical about the ability to bond with a 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:36.919 robotic pet, that's very convincing. Think about this. Would you 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.679 feel okay kicking it like just any rock or something 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:43.240 like that. If you wouldn't, and I think if you're 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.720 a person of normal emotional character you wouldn't feel okay 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:49.760 about just kicking it, then you might also have some 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:53.640 potential to bond with something like this. Yeah. But so 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:56.640 a little more about Clio. So it was originally put 0:19:56.640 --> 0:20:00.080 out by Yugobi. I think that's how you pronounce it, 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:02.560 which I shared a co creator with the old Furbie 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:07.399 dolls Um Caleb Chung. Yes. Yeah. So the original model 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:11.040 of Pleo went goodbye in two thousand nine, but then 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:15.399 the model was resurrected later as Pleo r B Pleo 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:18.879 reborn Um And so that was priced at four hundred 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:22.080 and sixty nine dollars in two thousand and eleven. That 0:20:22.280 --> 0:20:25.359 is still officially the list price from what I can tell, 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.720 but I've found them as cheap as three D fifty 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:32.840 five on Amazon, so uh much less expensive than the 0:20:32.880 --> 0:20:37.240 old Sony a Bow or EBow dogs and much much 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:41.520 less expensive. So we're starting to see it in a 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:45.040 range where at least some people would have it more 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:49.639 within their their buying power. But again, I think a 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:53.240 lot of people still view these as as toys primarily, 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:57.119 not as something that they would uh, not as something 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:00.240 that they could develop an emotional attachment to that would 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:05.560 seem quote unquote normal, right, Not like there's anything necessarily 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:09.080 abnormal about it, because as we've established, all of us 0:21:09.160 --> 0:21:13.320 can develop emotional attachments to things that are not organically alive. 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:18.679 But there's kind of a social and cultural concept that 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:21.800 such an emotional attachment is a little odd. Maybe it's 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:24.639 changing slowly, but I know that if I were to 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.719 have bought a pleo as a kid and treated it 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:32.360 like a pet, even if that made me happy, I'm 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:34.280 sure that most of my friends would have viewed me 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:38.280 as even more strange than they already did just saying something, 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:40.879 and possibly that your parents would have gone like, huh No, 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:43.400 I think my parents would have been totally on board. 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:49.160 In fact, I feel fairly confident about that. So moving on, though, 0:21:49.720 --> 0:21:53.119 there was another robotic dog, Right, I just wanted to 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:55.760 cite one more example, because actually there have been a bunch. Sure, yeah, 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:57.879 there's been. Yeah, there's actually quite a few examples. I 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.919 mean I remember going through toy stores and seeing various 0:22:01.600 --> 0:22:04.639 models of different types of robotic pets the head different 0:22:04.680 --> 0:22:07.640 levels of sophistications. Some of them were no more than 0:22:07.720 --> 0:22:11.320 like an r C controlled essentially like an RC controlled vehicle, 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:14.720 but in an animal kind of form factor. Others had 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.320 these more advanced features where they were able to respond 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:21.600 to things like vocal commands or being able to sense 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:26.200 when something was touching it. Yeah, So we just focused 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:27.720 on some of the ones that I thought were the 0:22:27.760 --> 0:22:29.800