TOKYO REPORT: Sony’s Aibo Evolving from “Pet Dog”

March 20, 2019

Tokyo-Aibo, a large dog-like robotic pet developed by Sony Corp., is finding its way into the fields of medical care and home security.

"We will make (Aibo) useful not only as a cute pet but also as a family member," said Izumi Kawanishi, Sony's senior vice president in charge.

In December, the Japanese conglomerate and the National Center for Child Health and Development started a joint program to use Aibo to ease the loneliness and anxiety of children hospitalized for a long time.

"Children who have withdrawn to their bedrooms rush out, yelling, 'Aibo has come!,'" Kyoko Tanaka, a doctor at the center, said, noting the effectiveness of the robotic pet in treating child patients.

Aibo also helps children become friends with each other when they gather around it, she said.

The center will measure the effects of Aibo on reducing stress and anxiety in some 100 hospitalized children by the end of March 2021 and release the findings.

It also plans to carry out a study on the future use of Aibo for helping children who are not good at communicating with others.

In June, Sony will begin leasing out the robot for 1,598 yen per month for home security. Aibo will walk around in a house, if instructed by an remote user via smartphone, and send scenes to the handset screen by photo or video.

Aibo is able to recognize family members, whose face photos are registered in advance, in the house and show them on the screen, according to Sony. This is an effective way to check, for example, how children are doing at home or the health condition of elderly parents living in a distant area.

In addition, Sony and Secom Co. are considering the use of Aibo for the leading security company's service to dispatch emergency personnel if an abnormal situation develops at a client's home.

To expand Aibo's applications, Sony will permit users to change its program partially, to make it more useful to them, starting this summer. While the change will require a certain level of knowledge about information technology on the part of customers, they will be able to add such functions as picking a tissue paper from a box or turning on and off electric appliances.

"We hope users will devise applications we couldn't imagine," Kawanishi said.

In related developments, Paro, a seal-like robot developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, is widely used at nursing homes for the elderly and other places, while people are increasingly being met by Softbank Corp.'s <9434> humanoid robot Pepper at storefronts and reception areas.

Shipments of Aibo had exceeded 20,000 units as of July last year. The national institute and Softbank have so far shipped some 5,000 and 10,000 units of their robots, respectively.

The use of robotic pets is expected to keep expanding in light of rapid advances in robotics. Jiji Press