Aibo 2.0 is coming back?

You may have a cute and beautiful dog like mine, but can your dog talk back to you? Give you news update? Lit up the bedroom lights? Or even make a purchase?

It seems Aibo the electronic dog is looking for a sequel.

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“Twelve years after abandoning its robot business, Sony will relaunch it next spring with a robot for homes that resembles a dog.

The company is now forming a development team of people formerly involved with Aibo, a robotic pet dog that captured media attention years ago.

Sony has just emerged from a long restructuring period, but has yet to create products with new value. Still, the company hopes to compete with rivals in the U.S. information technology industry, which has a head start in artificial intelligence, by taking advantage of its expertise in mechanical engineering.

The company’s first foray into the field will be a robotic pet, frolicking like a real dog while controlling home appliances at voice commands. It will be similar to smart speakers equipped with AI and internet connectivity, such as those offered by Amazon.com and Google, except that it will look and, to some extent, act like a dog.” Source: Nikkei.com

Image by Nikkei.com

The best part of this news is Sony plans to make the proprietary operating system an open platform just like ROS (robot operating system) to allow outside developer to add features.

I’m looking forward to see their open source application. It will be a cool addition to Autonomous Robot project.

Featured Image by AFP/ Getty Images