The Dancing Sony Rolly

Finally, a robot made for music lovers. When you hear robot, you may be thinking about a humanoid one that can dance like humans, but this one is not that kind of robot. This robot has ear like flaps and it rolls like a mouse. Yes, it is small and you can easily hold it in your hand.

The Eggy Robot

This egg shaped player has two robotic wings that will respond to your song. The speakers are hidden under these wings. In addition to wings, there are two wheels that help the rolly to move around. The wheels help rolly to rotate 360 degrees and make the amazing dancing moves.

The Rolly Wheels are also the controls of this device. Turning the wheels changes volume and advances playlist. Sound sensitive neon lights beautifully surround the wheels. The cool thing is that you can customize all these movements with accompanying software. There is also an option to upload your customization to internet and spread among your friends.

Rolly is Light and Feature Rich

Sony Rolly weighs only 300gms and has a battery life of 5hrs. Its memory capacity is 1GB and supports Bluetooth streaming for your convenience. However, it lacks the most useful wi-fi connectivity.

Sony Rolly Technical Specification

Memory: 1GB
Supported audio formats: MP3, ATRAC, AAC up to 300+ kbps
Connectivity: USB 2.0, Bluetooth
Battery: 5h for music playback, 4,5h for streaming music over Bluetooth connection, 4h of music and motion combined, and finally 3.5h for streaming music over Bluetooth with motion. Battery charges through USB connectivity.
Dimensions and weight: 104×65×65mm, 300grams

Here is two video describing the functionalities of this product. The second one is actually Sony’s Rolly ad.

Currently, Rolly is only available in Japan. Amazon Japan sells this product for 370 USD.

AIBO: SONY’s Robot Dog

AIBO is an autonomous robotic dog manufactured by Tokyo based Sony. The uniqueness of this four-legged entertainment robot is that it is able to take decisions as it develops its character.

AIBO gets its name from Artificially Intelligent RoBOt. Pronounced as eye-bow, Aibo means companion in Japanese language.

You can set AIBO’s character as that of a puppy or a grown up dog. AIBO can recognize its owner’s voice and face. It can respond to over 100 words or phrases including praises and scolding.

The computer program called AIBOware that resides in the memory stick controls the operations of AIBO. AIBOware allows the AIBO toy to evolve into a mature dog from a puppy as the learning happens. Absence of AIBOware makes AIBO run in clinic mode that allows it to perform only basic actions.

AIBO comes with stereo microphones for hearing and a color video camera for vision. A distance detector helps it to avoid obstacles. The touch sensor placed in the head allows AIBO to respond to non-verbal communication.

AIBO uses SONY’s OPEN-R platform to operate. The vision system uses SIFT algorithm to recognize its charging station. It’s the voice recognition system that runs in AIBO, which allows it to recognise owner’s voice and carry out the vocal commands.

For older people who want an end to their solitude can opt for this robotic dog. Being able to learn from external stimuli like his master, environment and other AIBOs, it matures his character as time goes on.

AIBOs are strong contenders in the Robocup autonomous soccer competition conducted for SONY four-legged robot league.

Since the launch in 1999 the sales figures for this robotic toy has crossed 1.5 million units. The popularity of AIBO has not diminished with the announcement from SONY Inc stressing the discontinuity of production of AIBO in March 2006.