titus gets another mention..

ross was interviewed by the boston globe yesterday, and i quote..
"..Dawson has been pushing robotic pets, which I find strange because I only recently began to enjoy actual, live pets. When we talked, Dawson had just returned from an around-the-world trip with his wife, his infant daughter, and a compact, programmable robotic dinosaur called Pleo. As you can imagine, Pleo ("the smartest robot pet yet," according to Popular Science magazine) isn't much trouble on the road, consumes nothing but the occasional jolt of electricity, and doesn't fidget in airplanes. You can see one at pleoworld.com.

Dawson said that Japan, with its declining population, has embraced the notion of robotic baby sitters, and that "research in America shows that elderly people in nursing homes respond just as well to a robot dog as to a real dog. We can form emotional ties with robots."
you can see the full post at

http://rossdawsonblog.com/
Posted on April 14, 2008

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Titus hits the big time!

titus made it onto breakfast television ! ross took him in to the Today show, and he was a little trouper(pleo), purring and generally being pleo-like. the female host was quite enamoured!

it was live tv, and the slot was supposed to be 7.20 am. That came and went, and i was thinking that they'd dropped him, or the batteries died, or something awful. They just had a busy show, so Ross was bumped to 8.15 am . I thought Leda would get excited seeing Titus and her dad on tv, but she was totally disinterested.
apparently later in the show the male host held pleo up by the tail, and the switchboard was flooded with complaints!

ross has written his thoughts as a futurist about it on his blog; http://rossdawsonblog.com/weblog/archives/2008/03/live_on_today_s.html

Posted on March 20, 2008

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our pleo the media star

still having fun with titus. cousin amy came over and played with him for a long time tonight. his batteries seem to have shortened quite a bit though- we only had 45 minutes before he'd really had enough and conked out. hope they survive long enough tommorow- he's going to be a *star*- ross is taking him on the "today" breakfast show . hope he performs well!
Posted on March 19, 2008

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new software

just playing with titus now after the very straightforward download. the most noticeable thing for me is his improved gait. he seems to lift his feet just a fraction higher, so he isnt shuffling so much, and he can cover quite a bit more ground. he's awake longer too. AND i really like his self-wakening . Before id have to hold him upside down for a bit to shake off the narcolepsy. and even then it didnt always wake him :)
Posted on March 5, 2008

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pleo outing

we took pleo to a friends house for a barbeque, and he had a great time! He found their daughters pink plastic shoe fascinating and buried his nose in it for a while before taking it for a walk by holding it(probaby inadvertently) between his front leg and under his chin. It looked clever anyway
He then fell in love with their garden hose , all lovely , greeen and scaly looking, and he managed to wrap himself up in the coils and nuzzled and crooned for a good 10 minutes (which for a pleo is a long time to stay awake without humans!)
Posted on March 2, 2008

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now they are really good friends,

..but i can't leave her with him for a second. her idea of gentle is a bit abstract
Posted on March 2, 2008

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wondering what he's looking at

while im just worried she's going to give him that squashed peach in her other hand
Posted on March 2, 2008

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she wasnt sure at first,

but soon got used to him
Posted on March 2, 2008

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finally got access to my first pictures

baby leda meeting pleo for the first time
Posted on March 2, 2008

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first day with pleo

So our courier arrived with pleo yesterday, and ross pulled out an old tranformer for our 220v australian system. i was a bit apprehensive because this thing is like an old steel brick from world war two, and i was concerned it might blow up the battery, especially when it went to blinking red.i can see why it does though- they get very hot charging , and in use. this is also the main reason pleo sleeps a lot- to cool down a bit.
Just to clarify though- my husband is a techo geek (sorry darling, but you are :), with a degree in physics to boot, and he lived off this transformer when he left the US, so we know it works well. it just looks old and heavy. we checked out new ones yesterday, and they arent any better(ie still big and clunky)

so then finally, the big moment arrived-pleo here, battery charged, video camera ready.
we put the battery in...nothing. we checked it was on.. nothing. i ran to the forums for troubleshooting....no help.
i was just about to despair, when suddenly pleo came to! this was a happy moment , after all my online researching and organising . seems pleo sometimes needs fairly good shake etc to get him going, and we were being a little too cautious.
Leda was a bit shy at first, but soon warmed to him, and was kissing and patting- have video which i can post when i eventually get to ross's computer. Cute toy and baby discovering each other-gotta be plogging gold, but it'll have to wait.
next challenge will be to get leda to really understand gentle, now she's overcome her initial reticence. I'll also have to watch where i put pleo, since the floor is fraught with peril for him, and anywhere that leda can reach is likely to end with him on the floor. Ive got a wooden play pen that leda never used, maybe i can put pleo in there to graze, and train him to stay clear of the bars!
anyway, first impressions of pleo are that he is quite cat-like in size and weight. he feels softer than i expected, and i love the way he presses his feet against my hands. i dont really know what to expect in terms of pleo ability(both now and with future coding), but the toy as it is , is pretty cool.
Posted on February 19, 2008

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waiting for pleo

i ordered our new pet last week, and just got call from my staff to say it's here! after just getting out of hospital today with a sick child (indeterminate fever which triggered off two febrile convulsions in a row), i can say- what a nice homecoming!!
just have to get the australian adapter/converter thing sorted now..
Posted on February 18, 2008

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