Roll Over, Aibo: Meet S.Korea's Robot Dog Fri Apr 28, 10:28 AM ET
SEOUL, South Korea - Roll over, Aibo, there's a new robot dog in town. A South Korean company is stepping into to the gap left by Sony's decision to end production of its mechanized canine Aibo with a new robot hound that can recognize spoken commands and act as a watchdog with a camera built into its snout.
DasaTech, based in Bucheon in eastern Seoul, said it plans to put its robot ? named the "Genibo" for "genius robot" ? on the market next year for an as-yet-unspecified price, according to company official Cho Soo-hyun.
The Genibo, which stands a foot tall and weighs 3.3 pounds, understands 100 commands, including "sit," "roll over" and "wag tail." The company says it can navigate around obstacles by itself.
Japan's Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news). said earlier this year it was killing off the Aibo robot project to cut costs. It had sold some
150,000 Aibos since they debuted in 1999 and sparked a strong following among fans ? some of whom owned whole packs of the machines that retailed for about $2,000.
Aibo also could recognize voices and the face of its owner.