Here’s a look back at one of the first mass produced robotic inventions. Sony’s Aibo, is programmed to act like a real canine companion.  I never realized how cool this dog was until I watched Aibo and how it responds to his owner on video. It has some neat tricks up it’s, um paw. It recognizes it’s owners face, and Aibo’s eyes light up in green to convey happiness and red to show anger.

I love his sound effects and dancing skills! It can also hear and respond to voice commands, reminds you of appointments on your MS Outlook calender. Other cool tricks include his ability to read the latest sports and news reports using text to speech software. He also plays internet radio and MP3s through his speakers and grooves to the music.

The most interesting feature is it’s photo blogging capabilities. Aibo can cruise around the house snapping pictures every now and then and upload them to your blog. This definitely opened up the opportunity for some very unique blogs. Although there is a way for you to veto the pictures before they go live…just in case!

Aibo chewin on his robotic dog toy

Overall a very cool toy for rich geeks. I checked the instruction manual and it’s extremely (painfully) technical to set up. Over the years, Sony made a number of niche products. In the end, Sony had to cut costs and restructure and pulled the plug on its robot production. So unfortunately bow wow bot went bye bye. And how much was it? Oh, only a mere $2,000 US!  Here’s a few more unusual inventions. You just might have seen the Shake Weight on those late night infomercials. Here’s Ellen DeGeneres and studio audience members giving it a try!

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