No? Well, Judie has. And not only that, she has fed it, played with it, petted it, and generally treated it like a regular pet.  What is the Pleo? Well, in a word it is a baby dinosaur. A what you say? Yup. A dinosaur. No, this is not Jurassic Park, and no Judie has not suddenly hired a bunch of cloners to work over at Gear Diary. Pleo is, in fact, an extraordinarily lifelike robot. In fact, Pleo is so realistic:

[it] is how easy it is to forget that he is “just a toy”. I was on the phone the other night with him in my lap, and I found myself instinctively rubbing his back. I say instinctively because Pleo was giving me feedback based on the rubbing. He would nuzzle against me, wrap his tail against my leg, and make appropriate cooing sounds as I rubbed. If I stopped, he would make urgent sounds and head movements, letting me know that he expected the rubbing to start again. It was cute, and very easy to forget that I was rubbing a robot. I could honestly see how he would be a good pet replacement for someone who absolutely can’t have a live animal. It would be very easy to experience transference.

Head on over to Gear Diary to read Judie’s full review, and follow her journey from mechanized cat to Pleo; and all of her trials and tribulations in between.

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