Cat or Dog RoboPet-Will they ever takeover

We are a funny lot, cuddle and kiss a teddy Bear, care lovingly for our cars and spend hours cleaning and polishing it them only to leave it in the garage and as for the Tamagotchi Virtual Pet, parents all over were getting up day and night to make sure they were looked after or receive the wrath of their children. So why not love a RoboPet, better a Robocat coughing up a washer instead of a fur ball or a Robodog poohing ball bearings, this must be an improvement?

Sony robot pet. Remember Aibo from Sony, finished up capable of 250 movements, understand human speech, basic interaction and try getting your cat or dog to take photographs. More recently there has been the Pleo which is an autonomous robotic dinosaur, ok not a cat or dog but, with the ability to recognize sounds, sights, and touch. It expresses hunger, craves affection, explores its environment, and displays a wide range of emotion and is therefore more pet-like in its ability to react to sensory information and interact with its owner.

There are others made by electronic firms the world over, each year improving their robots ability to interact with us and they sell millions. Sold to tech savvy children and curious adults, they will never replace a real pet that gives companionship, love and affection. The relationship that is built up over time between the pet and its master cannot be reproduced in a Robopet. Unfortunately two articles that came out recently may just challenge that theory.

Emotional Robot Pets Quote “Designers of robot pets are fighting a never-ending battle with consumers to provide entertaining and realistic gadgets that respond to human interaction in ever more nuanced ways, mimicking the behaviour of real pet animals or even people”.

Current technologies in computing and electronics now make it possible to create embodied prototypes of artificial toys interacting in the physical world, limited behaviour in domestic robots is no longer of entertainment or interest to sophisticated users. Nowadays they want their robot pets to be like most of the “robots” they see in films and games.

There are three major issues to consider in robot design, the first is to construct an appropriate control architecture by which the robot can behave coherently, the second is to develop natural ways for the robot to interact with a person and the third is to embed emotional responses and behaviour into the robot’s computer.

It is hoped to address all three issues by adopting an approach to behaviour-based architecture — using a neural network — that could allow the owner of a robot pet to reconfigure the device to “learn,” or evolve new behaviour and at the same time ensure that the robot pet functions properly in real time.

Research teams around the world are working on developing vision modules for robots. Although this technique is not yet fully mature they hope to build a robot pet that will know its owner’s facial expressions and hopefully respond accordingly. Developments of this kind could have major implications for interactive functional robots of the future plus other devises and computers.

Will a RoboPet be on your shopping list in the not too distant future? For me personally who can’t master a mobile phone I think “Charlie”, our cat, will be safe curled up snoring away on the bed until her dieing day. Personally I do not think they will ever reproduce the unpredictability of our fury friends which makes them unique, loveable, fun and at times downright annoying which gives you the chance to experience the emotions that come with this. But there will be some who will prefer not to experience these emotions and take to these pets, unfortunately.

Last thoughts:- People who for health reasons cannot have pets will be able to gain experience we fortunate pet owners receive. Watch out next for RoboKids, do you think?

Pets Bureau provides a lost dog orlost cat the best chance of finding their way back. They offer a 24-hour, Pet identification and Reunification service to protect pets. All those pet owners who have a missing pet the trauma and isolation can be terrible. Susan Hipperson set up Pets Bureau which is dedicated to helping all pet owners in similar situations.