Pleo unboxing, er, hatching -- photos and video

Hard to believe it's been almost two years since Ugobe's Pleo was first announced, but today one of our very own showed up at our doorstep, sweet as a newborn (new-hatched?) Camarasaurus. Pleo's certainly undergone a lot of physical changes since we saw it in the early days, now sporting a more adorable shape (as well as cameras and sensors studded all over its precious little head). A few first impressions and fresh details

• Pleo's skin is rubbery-sticky (a little like the soles on a brand new pair of Cons). We can totally see this thing feeling like a dinosaur.
• The motors on this thing are loud. Like, kind of distractingly loud. Yet somehow it remains ineffably adorable. You just want to take care of the little bugger.
• You hatch it early on by flipping its power switch and petting it until it awakens from its deep, late-Jurassic-era slumber.
• Jury's still out on the Tim Allen-esque grunting noises.
• Ugobe PR let us know that the first version of Life OS (the software that powers Pleo) isn't really set up to "evolve" as it was supposed to, but there will be new versions of Live OS in 2008, which will enable behavioral optimizations and that "evolution" thing.
• There will be an SDK! Take that, Aibo. Poor, poor Aibo, dead as a dino--never mind.
• Despite having a massive, heavy NiMH battery pack, it's only 2200mAh;

We're still letting Pleo get situated and acquainted (read: charge) but we've got a hands-on gallery below, and video and plenty more Pleo details after the break. So, who's down for a quick refresher on chaos theory?

Gallery: Pleo unboxing, er, hatching -- photos and video

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More specs

• Camera-based light detection navigation
• Eight body sensors: head, chin, shoulders, back, legs
• Four foot switches, two mics, two speakers
• Orientation sensor and mouth IR detector
• Two 32-bit processors (central and image processing)
• Four 8-bit motor coprocessors
• 14 motors, 100 gears
• USB and SD

[Pleo Owner @ Feb 27th 2008 7:57PM]

Its not that noisy and it acts like a live dino. Pleo does walk but not as much as many would like and it responds to touch sensors and other inputs. A new OS upgrade is coming out shortly and may improve on these inputs. I have one and it can attract a crowd. Women love it more than men. I don't like the skin because it is hard to slide your hand across it when petting. People I show it to, are amazed.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:19PM]

These posts are coming too quickly! *pant**pant*!

[mushrooshi @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:20PM]

IT would be cool if thye had hand-painted "random" skins so you don't see pleo clones.

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:28PM]

or better yet, a blank pleo for your kids to paint their own! alot like the kidrobot munnys. http://www.kidrobot.com/

these pwn.

[Toadlet @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:22PM]

I swear I remember reading about them going to great efforts to reduce motor noise. What happened??

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:26PM]

al gore invented the solution.

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:24PM]

the chip in this lizard was expected to do marvelous things, hence the giant battery.

..probably breath fire or something of that nature.

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:26PM]

or better yet, a blank pleo for your kids to paint their own!

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:29PM]

bleh, this was meant for mushroomi, L2Reply NOOB.

[Ken Ambrose @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:30PM]

I got to play with an engineering model 4 or 5 months ago. It was incredibly fun to play with and I loved how it interacted with me. Especially the mouth sensor. That one is hilarious.

It definitely does have loud motors but at least you can't break them just by forcing the legs. That was a great choice.

[Mile @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:05PM]

>> Especially the mouth sensor.

TMI, Ken!

[John @ Dec 3rd 2007 10:52PM]

"I do not like it when you touch my breasts."

[JP @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:32PM]

Are you gonna take its skin off so we can see what makes it work?

[Ryan Block @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:47PM]

Ha! Doubtful, it's a review unit and that kind of thing isn't looked kindly upon.

[todd @ Dec 5th 2007 1:24AM]

There were some great pictures of Pleo's innards in Robot Magazine a while back.

You can see them here...

http://pleohq.com/pleo-101/technical-specs/

TL

[Pleo @ Feb 25th 2008 3:33PM]

Pleo have to be the winner of the award 2007!
http://www.pleo-web.de

[CharlieX @ Dec 3rd 2007 7:40PM]

it's louder than a cylon!

[Zach @ Dec 3rd 2007 10:20PM]

agreed

[smfr @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:00PM]

> Pleo's skin is rubbery-sticky
Hmmm, phthalates. Tasty phalates

[AlexP @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:04PM]

I'd hit it.

[AlexP @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:04PM]

I'd hit it.

[AlexP @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:04PM]

(twice)

[Kevin @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:05PM]

i don't think i've ever wanted anything more.

[Naomi @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:20PM]

I WANT!


Signed,
24 year old Caucasian female (key demo)

[Ondskan @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:26PM]

I'm tired of this unboxing thing!When we get some reboxing?

[murray @ Dec 3rd 2007 8:31PM]

"Ugobe PR let us know that the first version of Life OS (the software that powers Pleo) isn't really set up to "evolve" as it was supposed to" -- huh, so after all that wait, the damn thing doesn't have the headline feature? Lame.

I'm bummed about Qrio. Gimme a cool looking humanoid-form robot over a dorky little gay-glo caricature of a baby animal any day.

[murray @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:47PM]

I meant day-glo, but that was a funny typo.

[Darth Azathoth @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:07PM]

oh

[MickeyMoo @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:11PM]

Paint still wear off after petting it for 3 days?

[William @ Dec 4th 2007 12:09AM]

Actually, Ugobe has warned users that Pleo's skin will develop "wear patterns." Hmmm m ...

[MickeyMoo @ Dec 4th 2007 12:25AM]

I got slammed by UGOBE PR person astroturfing on another site when I posted my observations on a tester back in July. Seems like I wasn't as off the mark as she'd thought. It's SUCH a cool idea - I'd run out and get one for 199.00 - but it's to little for too much.

[jimmyfinch @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:11PM]

God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs...

Dinosaurs eat man. Woman inherits the earth...

[Krono6 @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:12PM]

OSHIT, IT'S JURASSIC PARK ALL OVER AGAIN!
Don't say I didn't warn you!

[Anthony @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:17PM]

I almost want one. But its so noisy...

[Jason Gill @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:19PM]

Wow, I was planning on getting one of these as a gift... after hearing how much motor chatter there is, I'm going to get them a Wii instead. This idea had so much promise, too; unfortunate that cheap parts ruined it.

[murray @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:49PM]

Servo motors are inherently noisy; this isn't a sign of poor quality. There are a lot of gears in them, and gears make noise. Making them quiet probably would have been prohibitively expensive.

[catfoodgood @ Dec 3rd 2007 10:11PM]

It's still quieter than an xbox 360!

[giantenemycrab @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:25PM]

Holy crap that thing is creepy.

[Jason Gill @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:52PM]

The thing costs $350 as it is -- they couldn't splurge for a little quieter motors with three hundred and fifty dollars?

[umijin @ Dec 3rd 2007 10:33PM]

Ryan, looks like you enjoyed it immensely. What's with the leaf thing? Some sort of RoboDino nip? Is that the only thing it will bite?

I have to wonder if they will ramp up product quickly enough before the holidays. If they can, maybe people will buy the first lot before they realize the servo-motors are loud. :-)

[Dan @ Dec 4th 2007 10:38PM]

"Is that the only thing it will bite?"

Hmm...
*zzzip*

[GMount @ Dec 4th 2007 12:24AM]

We got one too. It's fun and but the cats are already bored with it. No pooping though and it purrs quite nicely.

[Jesi @ Dec 4th 2007 10:01AM]

I love stuff like this, but I have tons of them already and the problem is they can't move on carpet - I've given up buying them now. If someone makes a robotic pet toy that can move across the average living room, they'd make a lot more money.

[Markus @ Dec 4th 2007 10:29AM]

Upon clicking the link to go to the Youtube page i couldn't help but notice the word "GAY" in the address, something i've never seen in a Youtube page before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAYUb10YtsU

Was this just an automated thing, or is somebody trying to hurt Pleto's feelings?

[nathan.wong @ Dec 4th 2007 3:15PM]

But, will it blend?

[Cam @ Dec 4th 2007 5:31PM]

HAHAHAHAHA. I WOULD PAY TO SEE THAT.

i want now though

[todd @ Dec 5th 2007 1:15AM]

I just got my Pleo shipping confirmation, and I'm seriously considering forwarding the package to Blendtec. Dying to hear the noise it makes ;)

TL

P.S. Find the answer to this and other questions at Pleo HQ...

http://pleohq.com/faq/will-it-blend/

[todd @ Dec 5th 2007 10:56AM]

Here's some folks "torturing" their Pleo...

http://dvice.com/archives/2007/12/pleo_post.php

NOTE: Video takes forever to load.

[Don Park @ Dec 5th 2007 11:29AM]

does it do anything more than stand and wiggle? id like to see it walk across the room. at any rate its exciting to see this tech progress. can't wait for the supertoys from the movie AI.

wow that thing is noisy.

[Senor_Tom @ Dec 31st 2007 12:25PM]

loud it may be, but the 360 is something else.