More DEMO: An Extremely Cool Dinorobot

A startup called Ugobe just showed off Pleo, a robotic dinosaur toy that looks pretty amazing. Unlike Sony's late, lamented Aibo or WowWee's Robosapien, Pleo looks like a cartoony, at least somewhat cuddly little character, not a hard-edged, industrialish bot. And he moves with personality, too--he's character animation that's real, not virtual. The only thing he reminds me of, vaguely, are the audio-animatronic figures at a Disney park--except Pleo is toy-sized, interactive (he likes to be petted and avoids walking off edges), and, by robot standards, affordable. (He's designed to sell for $200.)

Not a typical PC World product--but very, very cool.

You need to see Pleo to understand him--here's our article with more details and a rendering. I'll try to get more photos up soon...