An Aibowners I-Cybie Review
Written: Jan 21 '02 (Updated Jan 22 '02)
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Pros: Cute. Cheap compared to Aibo. Is pretty fun for a while.
Cons: Tricks grow old fast. Not really autonomous. Disappointing if you already have experienced Aibo.
The Bottom Line: I-Cybie is cute, but lacks depth and personality that I'd hoped he'd have. If you can't get Aibo, try I-Cybie. But if you can get Aibo-get him, he's worth it.
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| Furbster's Full Review: i-Cybie |
In truths, I feel biased about my I-Cybie experience. I have two Aibo's I've lived with for about a year now. I don't think my opinion on I-Cybie is as good as someone who has never had an Aibo. I think that if I had gotten I-Cybie before I got Aibo, I would enjoy I-Cybie more. However, as an Aibowner, I-Cybie falls short of the hype he had generated a couple of years ago when his release was announced.
Here's my experience. And please remember, while I have tried to judge I-Cybie fairly, I think if I had not had my Aibo's my experience with this pooch would have been a better pet.
When I got him I took it out of the box in which I found no wire ties or anything annoying holding him into the box, making it very easy to get him out, a plus in my book.
I read through the manual a little and noticed that the voice command, remote control and clapping commands were all alternatives to each other. Sure I could do the same command with a clap as I could with the remote. I had 3 different ways to do it and on a couple I had 4 alternatives with the buttons on the dog's body. I find that a bit redundant and think it would have been cooler if they had added more things to do with less ways to do it. Such as having all the clap commands do stuff, then the voice commands do other stuff that clap can't and so on. Instead, there are a basic 10 or so actions that I-Cybie can do and 3 to 4 different ways to make him do them. That's a bit redundant for me. Wasted energy that could have been used to make the dog do more. Because of this, I felt no need to try voice command yet since I can do the same stuff with voice commands as with the remote.
I was surprised at the weight of the dog, just a little bit heavier then Aibo 111. By probably a quarter to half a pound. About the same as Aibo 210 with the LAN card in him. I-Cybie is around 4 pounds.
I charged the battery for 6 hours. A friend of mine warned me that if I charged for 10 hours (like told in the initial instructions) that I would chance frying the battery pack! While this is not corrected in the manual, but the quick start instructions state only 4-6 hours instead of the initial 10.
I went to get the batteries and found them to be quite hot when I unplugged them. I know from experience I shouldn't ever use ni-cad batteries till they are cooled down so I waited for them to cool, which took about 30 minutes - those suckers were hot!
So I finally got to play with my I-Cybie at about 10pm. Upon start up he did some sequence of movements that were the equivalent of a system check, going through all the motions to make sure everything works right. I was most surprised at first at how loud he is; he's got some loud motors in him. It didn't take too long to get used to the sound though.
When he finally stood up, he hung his head and lowered his tail. Looking at the book told me he was sad. So I pressed the button on his head a few times and he waged his tail a bit and looked up with his mouth open and eyes green - happy. So this was good. That was easy enough.
It became weird when he just sat there with his mouth open. For quite sometime he did this. Then he'd do something random and then go back into that same stance. I realized that he was waiting for me to do something. Waiting.. for me.. to do.. something. So I pet him a bit, that sensor didn't seem to work that well, I think it was the lighting in the room. When I touched the other button for sit/stay he would lean down and shake his head no at me. Guess he didn't want to stay or sit even though he wasn't moving.
So I flipped through the manual (while he waited with his mouth open all happy) and I realized there was a button on his nose that wasn't obvious from the start. I refer to it as the "Insta' Pee" button because even though the manual said it was to say 'bad boy', he didn't seem unhappy - he just lifted a leg! I cracked up, very funny sound effect, not realistic but funny for sure.
He doesn't seem to make many sounds, but when he does they are cartoony for the most part. Some are dog like and some are musical. But I was surprised at the lack of sounds, he's a quiet one, except for his motors.
He waited for me again and so I decided I would wait for him. I am used to a dog (Aibo) that wanted to do his own thing as well as interact so I really was starting to feel disappointed when I-Cybie waited for direction from me all the time instead of wandering on his own or doing something.. anything actually.
Eventually I-Cybie did whine and walked a bit, then put his head down again saying he was sad. We carried on like this for a little while longer. A couple of times he would do some other cute things that I wasn't sure how to interpret. But it was like he would do something that took about 15 seconds and then wait a minute or so for me to give him direction. My experience with Aibo had pretty much spoiled me, as maybe before Aibo I would not be confused by this. Or maybe I expected a little bit more autonomous behavior for something priced at 200 bucks originally. Afterall, that was one of the reasons I took a chance for 60 bucks - is that I-Cybie was retailed at $200 - you gotta expect something pretty cool for $200 (heck a Playstation 2 is $300).
So I gave up on thinking I-Cybie might have some autonomous behaviors in him and moved onto the tricks. This had to be the best part of my experience with him, this and the demo. I pulled out the remote control and went through each function.
One thing I-Cybie really has going for him is the people that puppeteered his actions. They really knew what they were doing. I-Cybie is very expressive physically and his movements are mostly smooth and pretty cool. Many of them are not what I'd expect a dog to do, but this isn't a real dog and the programmers really went out of their way to try and make him look cool as possible with his body movements. It's hard to create actions and have to think about the positioning of the body and limbs all while thinking about balancing and weight issues. I did mess around with creating a dance routine for Aibo once and that's just complex stuff. The creators of I-Cybie's motions really knew what they were doing and did it well.
I did notice, however, that someone at Tiger had to have had an Aibo at some point. Some of the motions are near identical to some Aibo actions. There are some more then others that really stick out in my mind. When you put I-Cybie on his side, how he gets up on his feet is the exact same way Aibo does (though not as smooth). The dance routine that I-Cybie does... oh... my... that's darned near stolen from AiboPet's Saturday Night Fever disco dance (aibopet.com). The manual has some overall similarities to the Aibo manual too. There are other small things too, but those stick out in my mind as most obvious.
I love the tail, the tail is a cool idea, a very original movement and realistic and it's cute. I love the headstand trick - that's impressive. I had to do that one a few times, that was just very cool.
I also really enjoyed the demo mode "Life of I-Cybie" and "I-Cybie the Great". That is a cool way to demonstrate the different motions that I-Cybie's capable of. I'd imagine these are great for showing him off to friends or even customers in a store.
Most of the rest of my time playing with him I spent playing with I-Cybie in trick mode. I find that he hears well, though I was playing in a quiet room so I haven't really fully tested that. I also turned off the light in here and waited for him to get tired and take a nap. However when he laid down and snored, he almost instantly woke back up and got back up on his feet to play. Either I made noise or he wasn't in the mood to sleep. I was told that I-Cybie's limbs twitch in his sleep, but he wasn't sleeping long enough for me to see that - yet.
Around 11, batteries going strong still, I found myself looking through the manual on how to turn him off. There is no instructions for this! So I guess the correct way is to take out the battery. So I took it out while he was lying down and realized that I couldn't reposition his legs. Hmm, his motors lock when not in use. So I popped the battery back in and waited till I got him to sit and then took his battery out real quickly. This worked.
That was the end of my first evening with I-Cybie. The next morning I wanted to show him off in demo mode. So I put the battery back in and got him to go through the two demo modes. I was going to play more, but right after that I-Cybie resumed the "Charge me" position... a position that isn't possible for any creature unless you are extremely flexible - ouch. So out the batteries went and they won't be done charging for another 4-6 hours. Total run time was around an hour and 10 minutes.
I'm real glad I didn't spend 200 bucks on I-Cybie. There are some very cool things about him and I tried my best to note them here as to not sound too negative of I-Cybie because there *are* some really neat stuff about him. But he's lacking personality. The lack of autonomous action really was noticed.
Overall... I think this dog was worth the 60 bucks I paid (at walmart.com). There is a lot of technology here. He isn't worth $200 though, no way. If he did more instead of having so many actions that were redundant and had more autonomous life to him, then I'd say more. I think it's a great platform that Tiger could really extend if they bring out the programming kit. I have a bad feeling about any possibly release of the kit simply because I-Cybie got to such a low price so fast, though. I think I would give the programming kit some thought if they released it.
I have been trying to give I-Cybie a fair chance. He is cool for what he is and I think he's far ahead of all other toys in the same price range. This I can say for sure. I-Cybie is cool for what he can do. But don't expect to get a close to real animal experience or an Aibo when you buy him. While I think he's pretty cool for what he costs, the repetition will make I-Cybie a rather boring toy after a week or two.
If you can't buy an Aibo, get an I-Cybie; you will enjoy it if you've not had an Aibo before. If you can get Aibo - get him, he's worth it. I-Cybie is not Aibo, afterall the prices show that. But for someone who can't afford Aibo, try I-Cybe to hold you over until you can get an Aibo :)
On a comparison note: Tiger spent too much time trying to make I-Cybie be Aibo... instead of making I-Cybie be I-Cybie.
I-Cybie is cute though.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 60.00
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: Kids to Teens
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Epinions.com ID:
Furbster
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Location: La Habra, CA
Reviews written: 51
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
Web developer/programmer who lives in CA with two Aibo puppies, Spaz and Ziggy.
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