Pleo
Encyclopedia
Pleo is an animatronic pet dinosaur toy designed to emulate the appearance and (imagined) behavior of a week-old baby Camarasaurus
. It was designed by Caleb Chung, the co-creator of the Furby
, Chung's company Ugobe sold pleo and was manufactured by Jetta
. Chung selected this species of dinosaur because its body shape, stocky head, and relatively large cranium made it ideal for concealing the sensors and motors
needed for lifelike animation. According to Ugobe, each Pleo would "learn" from its experiences and environment through a sophisticated artificial intelligence
and develop an individual personality.
Pleo was unveiled on February 7, 2006 at the DEMO Conference
in Scottsdale, Arizona
and was expected to come on the India
n and American markets around Fall 2007. Pleo shipments started on December 5, 2007.
In April 2009, Ugobe laid off all of its employees and filed for bankruptcy
.
On June 8, 2009 Jetta ( the original Pleo manufacturer) announced it is re-launching Pleo and are continuing the line including accessories such as the vital battery
and battery charger
components.
Pleo is now owned by Innvo Labs Corporations (a division of Jetta.)
, animators, technologists, scientists, biologists, and programmers. The design combined sensory, articulation, and neuronetics to create a lifelike appearance with organic movement and adaptable behaviors.
In developing Pleo, Ugobe noted the biological and neurological systems of the Camarasaurus, and "re-interpreted" those elements through hardware and software.
The robot is software-upgradeable via SD card or USB interfaces and original cost was $350 USD. Ugobe encouraged user modifications of the robot's firmware
, provided links to 3rd party developed tools such as a graphical interface for home users called MySkit, and an API for programmers called a "PDK" (Pleo Developers Kit).
In a 2008 test of various animatronic animal toys in Slate magazine
, the Pleo was the only contestant that was considered a success, whereas the remaining models of earlier or competing developers were mainly considered unnatural, creepy, or simply unconvincing.
holidays, Pleoworld was offline, including the user forums. After the holidays, both Pleoworld and Ugobe's official websites displayed updating website messages. Both sites returned sometime at the beginning of 2009. Ugobe official website updated its board of directors listing. Ugobe stated that the problems were due to the company's relocation but had not explained why the user forums
have not been restored.
Wired News
reported the company's outlook was not good, and it was struggling to save itself from extinction as it tried to raise new funding and keep its pipeline of products alive.
From November 2008, the company saw a host of top management departures, including two CEOs, moved its office in California
, and pared down its marketing and Public Relations
staff in an attempt to weather the current economic storm. (This may be the reason for Pleoworld's demise.) Emails to the company's media contact on its website bounced back. Phone calls to its corporate office were not answered.
In July 2008, Ugobe CEO Bob Christopher stepped down and former CFO Liz Gasper retook control of the company. Christopher said he left the company to move on to other ventures. Gasper had focused on cutting down the company's burn rate
and finding new funding.
With the collapse of the United States credit environment, though, fund raising came to a halt. Meanwhile, the company's entire board of directors
resigned
before December, 2008, giving control of Ugobe back to the co-founders.
Ugobe also closed its Emeryville, California
office and moved all operations to its new offices in Boise, Idaho
. The company then had about twenty employees.
It had become extremely difficult for new Pleo owners or existing members of the website to access the official forums and Plogs. In the wake of these problems, a loyal fan has set up a forum for members to join to talk Pleo, get the latest Pleo news, and download firmware updates for Pleo.
On April 17, 2009 Ugobe filed chapter 7 bankruptcy, and halted the production of new Pleos.
On June 8, 2009 Jetta acquired Ugobe and Steve Ohler – the United States liaison for the company – said the company is firmly committed to re-launching Pleo and continuing the line including accessories such as the vital battery and charger components.
In 2011, the newest version, the Pleo RB (Standing for ReBorn), has been produced and released. It is similar, if not identical in design, with the original Pleo, but has multiple new functions. It has a longer-lasting battery (an oft-cited problem with the original Pleo) and generally faster bodily movement. It can sense changes in temperature, and will act as if it is sick or injured if it is maltreated or neglected, and must be tended to with certain accessory foods that can be purchased separately (such as ice cubes to cool it down, mint leaves to cure sickness, and rock salt to heal injuries). Also, while the original Pleo could sense and react to sounds, Pleo RB reacts to where the sound comes from (By turning its head to wards the source) Another new function is the ability to change its behaviour according to the time of day, such as becoming hungry around noon, or sleepy at night. But one of the most widely praised new functions is its voice-recognition, which gives the ability for each owner to give their individual Pleo RB a name, after which the Pleo RB will only follow commands (which can be "trained" into the Pleo by using a series of "Learning Stones") from the person who named them. The "learning stones" can be used to train Pleo RB to do tricks, such as bowing, dancing, walking towards their owner, etc.
Each Pleo RB unit comes with randomly selected eye-colours, and according to the manufacturers, because of the manner in which their skin is coloured, each Pleo RB's skin is a slightly different hue of green. A special line of pink or blue Pleo RBs were released on the Asian market.
Camarasaurus
Camarasaurus meaning 'chambered lizard', referring to the hollow chambers in its vertebrae was a genus of quadrupedal, herbivorous dinosaurs. It was the most common of the giant sauropods to be found in North America...
. It was designed by Caleb Chung, the co-creator of the Furby
Furby
A Furby was a popular electronic robotic toy resembling a hamster/owl-like creature which went through a period of being a "must-have" toy following its launch in the holiday season of 1998, with continual sales until 2000...
, Chung's company Ugobe sold pleo and was manufactured by Jetta
Jetta (electronics company)
Jetta International is an American OEM manufacturer and designer of computer laptops, mainly operating in the East Coast. The company was established in 1991, and it is based in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey , where the only manufacturing plant is settled.Jetbook, the laptop series manufactured by...
. Chung selected this species of dinosaur because its body shape, stocky head, and relatively large cranium made it ideal for concealing the sensors and motors
Electric motor
An electric motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy.Most electric motors operate through the interaction of magnetic fields and current-carrying conductors to generate force...
needed for lifelike animation. According to Ugobe, each Pleo would "learn" from its experiences and environment through a sophisticated artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
and develop an individual personality.
Pleo was unveiled on February 7, 2006 at the DEMO Conference
DEMO conference
The DEMO conference is a technology conference that focuses on showcasing new products from both entrepreneurs and established companies. It is held by IDG....
in Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale, Arizona
Scottsdale is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2010 the population of the city was 217,385...
and was expected to come on the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n and American markets around Fall 2007. Pleo shipments started on December 5, 2007.
In April 2009, Ugobe laid off all of its employees and filed for bankruptcy
Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a legal status of an insolvent person or an organisation, that is, one that cannot repay the debts owed to creditors. In most jurisdictions bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor....
.
On June 8, 2009 Jetta ( the original Pleo manufacturer) announced it is re-launching Pleo and are continuing the line including accessories such as the vital battery
Battery (electricity)
An electrical battery is one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy. Since the invention of the first battery in 1800 by Alessandro Volta and especially since the technically improved Daniell cell in 1836, batteries have become a common power...
and battery charger
Battery charger
A battery charger is a device used to put energy into a secondary cell or rechargeable battery by forcing an electric current through it.The charge current depends upon the technology and capacity of the battery being charged...
components.
Pleo is now owned by Innvo Labs Corporations (a division of Jetta.)
Overview
Pleo was engineered by a group of robotics specialistsRoboticist
A roboticist designs, builds, programs, and experiments with robots. Since robotics is a highly interdisciplinary field, roboticists often have backgrounds in a number of disciplines including computer science, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer engineering...
, animators, technologists, scientists, biologists, and programmers. The design combined sensory, articulation, and neuronetics to create a lifelike appearance with organic movement and adaptable behaviors.
In developing Pleo, Ugobe noted the biological and neurological systems of the Camarasaurus, and "re-interpreted" those elements through hardware and software.
The robot is software-upgradeable via SD card or USB interfaces and original cost was $350 USD. Ugobe encouraged user modifications of the robot's firmware
Firmware
In electronic systems and computing, firmware is a term often used to denote the fixed, usually rather small, programs and/or data structures that internally control various electronic devices...
, provided links to 3rd party developed tools such as a graphical interface for home users called MySkit, and an API for programmers called a "PDK" (Pleo Developers Kit).
In a 2008 test of various animatronic animal toys in Slate magazine
Slate (magazine)
Slate is a US-based English language online current affairs and culture magazine created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley, initially under the ownership of Microsoft as part of MSN. On 21 December 2004 it was purchased by the Washington Post Company...
, the Pleo was the only contestant that was considered a success, whereas the remaining models of earlier or competing developers were mainly considered unnatural, creepy, or simply unconvincing.
Features
- camera-based vision systemMachine visionMachine vision is the process of applying a range of technologies and methods to provide imaging-based automatic inspection, process control and robot guidance in industrial applications. While the scope of MV is broad and a comprehensive definition is difficult to distil, a "generally accepted...
(for light detection and navigation) - Two microphoneMicrophoneA microphone is an acoustic-to-electric transducer or sensor that converts sound into an electrical signal. In 1877, Emile Berliner invented the first microphone used as a telephone voice transmitter...
s, binaural hearingSound localizationSound localization refers to a listener's ability to identify the location or origin of a detected sound in direction and distance. It may also refer to the methods in acoustical engineering to simulate the placement of an auditory cue in a virtual 3D space .The sound localization mechanisms of the... - beat detectionBeat detectionIn signal analysis, beat detection is using computer software or computer hardware to detect the beat of a musical score. There are many methods available and beat detection is always a tradeoff between accuracy and speed. Beat detectors are common in music visualization software such as some media...
(allows pleo to dance and listen to music). - Twelve touch sensorsTouch switchA touch switch is a type of switch that only has to be touched by an object to operate. It is used in many lamps and wall switches that have a metal exterior as well as on public computer terminals...
(head, chin, shoulders, back, feet) - Four ground foot sensors (surface detection)
- fourteen force-feedback sensors, one per jointJointA joint is the location at which two or more bones make contact. They are constructed to allow movement and provide mechanical support, and are classified structurally and functionally.-Classification:...
- orientation tilt sensor for body position
- infraredInfraredInfrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
mouth sensor for object detection into mouth - two-way infrared communication with other Pleos
- infrared detection for external objects
- 32-bit32-bitThe range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
AtmelAtmelAtmel Corporation is a manufacturer of semiconductors, founded in 1984. Its focus is on system-level solutions built around flash microcontrollers...
ARM7 microprocessor (main processor for Pleo)- 32-bit NXP Semiconductors ARM7 sub-processor (camera system, dedicated audio input processorAudio signal processingAudio signal processing, sometimes referred to as audio processing, is the intentional alteration of auditory signals, or sound. As audio signals may be electronically represented in either digital or analog format, signal processing may occur in either domain...
) - four 8-bit8-bitThe first widely adopted 8-bit microprocessor was the Intel 8080, being used in many hobbyist computers of the late 1970s and early 1980s, often running the CP/M operating system. The Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 were also used in similar computers...
processors (low-level motor controlMotor controlMotor control are information processing related activities carried out by the central nervous system that organize the musculoskeletal system to create coordinated movements and skilled actions...
)
- 32-bit NXP Semiconductors ARM7 sub-processor (camera system, dedicated audio input processor
Ugobe bankruptcy
Beginning in December 2008, Pleoworld.com began to experience technical problems. By the ChristmasChristmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
holidays, Pleoworld was offline, including the user forums. After the holidays, both Pleoworld and Ugobe's official websites displayed updating website messages. Both sites returned sometime at the beginning of 2009. Ugobe official website updated its board of directors listing. Ugobe stated that the problems were due to the company's relocation but had not explained why the user forums
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
have not been restored.
Wired News
Wired News
Wired News is an online technology news website, formerly known as HotWired, that split off from Wired magazine when the magazine was purchased by Condé Nast Publishing in the 1990s. Wired News was owned by Lycos not long after the split, until Condé Nast purchased Wired News on July 11, 2006...
reported the company's outlook was not good, and it was struggling to save itself from extinction as it tried to raise new funding and keep its pipeline of products alive.
From November 2008, the company saw a host of top management departures, including two CEOs, moved its office in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and pared down its marketing and Public Relations
Public relations
Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....
staff in an attempt to weather the current economic storm. (This may be the reason for Pleoworld's demise.) Emails to the company's media contact on its website bounced back. Phone calls to its corporate office were not answered.
In July 2008, Ugobe CEO Bob Christopher stepped down and former CFO Liz Gasper retook control of the company. Christopher said he left the company to move on to other ventures. Gasper had focused on cutting down the company's burn rate
Burn rate
Burn rate is a synonymous term for negative cash flow. It is a measure for how fast a company will use up its shareholder capital. If the shareholder capital is exhausted, the company will either have to start making a profit, find additional funding, or close down.The term came into common use...
and finding new funding.
With the collapse of the United States credit environment, though, fund raising came to a halt. Meanwhile, the company's entire board of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
resigned
Resignation
A resignation is the formal act of giving up or quitting one's office or position. It can also refer to the act of admitting defeat in a game like chess, indicated by the resigning player declaring "I resign", turning his king on its side, extending his hand, or stopping the chess clock...
before December, 2008, giving control of Ugobe back to the co-founders.
Ugobe also closed its Emeryville, California
Emeryville, California
Emeryville is a small city located in Alameda County, California, in the United States. It is located in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, extending to the shore of San Francisco Bay. Its proximity to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and...
office and moved all operations to its new offices in Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
. The company then had about twenty employees.
It had become extremely difficult for new Pleo owners or existing members of the website to access the official forums and Plogs. In the wake of these problems, a loyal fan has set up a forum for members to join to talk Pleo, get the latest Pleo news, and download firmware updates for Pleo.
On April 17, 2009 Ugobe filed chapter 7 bankruptcy, and halted the production of new Pleos.
On June 8, 2009 Jetta acquired Ugobe and Steve Ohler – the United States liaison for the company – said the company is firmly committed to re-launching Pleo and continuing the line including accessories such as the vital battery and charger components.
In 2011, the newest version, the Pleo RB (Standing for ReBorn), has been produced and released. It is similar, if not identical in design, with the original Pleo, but has multiple new functions. It has a longer-lasting battery (an oft-cited problem with the original Pleo) and generally faster bodily movement. It can sense changes in temperature, and will act as if it is sick or injured if it is maltreated or neglected, and must be tended to with certain accessory foods that can be purchased separately (such as ice cubes to cool it down, mint leaves to cure sickness, and rock salt to heal injuries). Also, while the original Pleo could sense and react to sounds, Pleo RB reacts to where the sound comes from (By turning its head to wards the source) Another new function is the ability to change its behaviour according to the time of day, such as becoming hungry around noon, or sleepy at night. But one of the most widely praised new functions is its voice-recognition, which gives the ability for each owner to give their individual Pleo RB a name, after which the Pleo RB will only follow commands (which can be "trained" into the Pleo by using a series of "Learning Stones") from the person who named them. The "learning stones" can be used to train Pleo RB to do tricks, such as bowing, dancing, walking towards their owner, etc.
Each Pleo RB unit comes with randomly selected eye-colours, and according to the manufacturers, because of the manner in which their skin is coloured, each Pleo RB's skin is a slightly different hue of green. A special line of pink or blue Pleo RBs were released on the Asian market.
External links
- Official PleoWorld website
- Pleopatra Tools - Research project of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence
- MySkit site for Pleo tools (Tools allowing fans to customize Pleo)