Who here knows what a pleo is?
In a nutshell, Pleo is a sophisticated robotic life form of a one week old baby camarasaurus. It is made to capture both your heart and imagination; It behaves and interacts in a lifelike fashion, exploring it's enviroment, moving and gesturing like a real creature and expressing various emotions, and evolving over time through various stages of life.
Skip down to the bottom if you don't want to read this long, detailed and drawn-out Wikipedia definition of a Pleo:
Pleo is an animatronic dinosaur toy designed to emulate the appearance and (imagined) behavior of a week-old baby Camarasaurus. It was designed by Caleb Chung, the co-creator of the Furby, Chung's company Ugobe sold pleo and was manufactured by Jetta. Chung selected this species of dinosaur because its body shape, stocky head, and relatively large cranium made it ideal for concealing the sensors and motors needed for lifelike animation. According to Ugobe, each Pleo would "learn" from its experiences and environment through a sophisticated artificial intelligence and develop an individual personality.
Pleo was unveiled on February 7, 2006 at the Demo Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona and was expected to come on the Indian and American markets around Fall 2007. Pleo shipments started on December 5, 2007.
In April 2009, Ugobe laid off all of its employees and filed for bankruptcy.
On June 8, 2009 Jetta announced it is re-launching Pleo and are continuing the line including accessories such as the vital battery and battery charger components. Pleo is now owned by Innvo Labs Corporations. The company’s unique products, known as Life Forms, intend to blur the line between technology and life by integrating three disciplines—organic articulation, sensory response, and autonomous behavior. Innvo Labs aims to revolutionize robotics and transfer inanimate objects into lifelike creatures. That made Innvo the best candidate for bringing Pleo back to life.Pleo was engineered by a group of robotics specialists, animators, technologists, scientists, biologists, and programmers. The design combined sensory, articulation, and neuronetics to create a lifelike appearance with organic movement and adaptable behaviors. In developing Pleo, Ugobe noted the biological and neurological systems of the Camarasaurus, and "re-interpreted" those elements through hardware and software. The robot is software-upgradeable via SD card or USB interfaces and original cost was $350 USD.[2] Ugobe encouraged user modifications of the robot's firmware, provided links to 3rd party developed tools such as a graphical interface for home users called MySkit, and an API for programmers called a "PDK" (Pleo Developers Kit). In a 2008 test of various animatronic animal toys in Slate magazine, the Pleo was the only contestant which was considered a success, whereas the remaining models of earlier or competing developers were mainly considered unnatural, creepy or simply unconvincing.
ABOUT THE UGOBE BANKRUPTCY
Beginning in December 2008, Pleoworld began to experience technical problems. By the Christmas holidays, Pleoworld was offline, including the user forums. After the holidays, both Pleoworld and Ugobe's official websites displayed updating website messages. Both sites returned sometime at the beginning of 2009. Ugobe official website updated its board of directors listing. Ugobe stated that the problems were due to the company's relocation but had not explained why the user forums have not been restored.
Wired News reported the company's outlook was not good, and it was struggling to save itself from extinction as it tried to raise new funding and keep its pipeline of products alive.
From November 2008, the company saw a host of top management departures, including two CEOs, moved its office in California, and pared down its marketing and Public Relations staff in an attempt to weather the current economic storm. (This may be the reason for Pleoworld's demise.) Emails to the company's media contact on its website bounced back. Phone calls to its corporate office were not answered.
In July 2008, Ugobe CEO Bob Christopher stepped down and former CFO Liz Gasper retook control of the company. Christopher said he left the company to move on to other ventures. Gasper had focused on cutting down the company's burn rate and finding new funding.
With the collapse of the United States credit environment, though, fund raising came to a halt. Meanwhile, the company's entire board of directors resigned before December, 2008, giving control of Ugobe back to the co-founders, said Swanson.
Ugobe also closed its Emeryville, California office and moved all operations to its other offices in Boise, Idaho. The company then had about twenty employees. Gasper left the company, and original co-founder Caleb Chung found himself back in the hot seat. Chung did not respond to requests for an interview.
It had become extremely difficult for new Pleo owners or existing members of the website to access the official forums and Plogs. In the wake of these problems, a loyal fan has setup a forum for members to join to talk Pleo, get the latest Pleo news, and download firmware updates for Pleo.
On April 17, 2009 Ugobe filed chapter 7 bankruptcy, and halted the production of new Pleos.
On June 8, 2009 Jetta acquired Ugobe and Steve Ohler - the United States liaison for the company - said the company is firmly committed to re-launching Pleo and continuing the line including accessories such as the vital battery and charger components
A letter to Pleo
Dear Pleo, we were devastated when news of your extinction made headlines a while ago. Now, we're heartened to hear that you'll be back. Jetta Company, the firm that manufactured you for the now defunct Ugobe, has apparently acquired the assets of Ugobe which was facing bankruptcy. The good news is your comeback will be accompanied by an accessories lineup including batteries and charging components. Now, all that's needed to complete the happy picture are baby dinobot Pleos.
~Bumblebee and the other Pleoworld members
I'll post more about Pleos, and a picture of all four of mine (ha-ha, I surprised you with that, didn't I?) very soon. Thanks for reading!
~BB
