RIP, Pleo

I’ve always had a soft spot for robotic simulacra of humans and animals. I went through a period of wondering whether to buy a Sony Aibo, until Sony announced that they were getting out of the robot dog business. The successor to Aibo, from a different manufacturer and from an earlier period in the earth’s evolutionary history was Pleo. Alas, I learned today that Pleo’s manufacturer has gone belly-up.

Still, I’m sure that innovators and manufacturers around the world will keep striving to produce toys like Teddy that last the whole summer long. In the meantime, here’s a fascinating video of what happened when one Pleo’s owner took it on a visit to the local aquarium (skip forward to about 1 minute 46 seconds in…).