Роботизированная собака i Cybie: история и возможности

Robotic toy dog

i Cybie (爱赛比) is a robotic pet that resembles a dog. It was manufactured by Silverlit Toys Manufactory Ltd Hong Kong from 2000 to 2006. i Cybie was developed for commercial distribution by Tiger Electronics. Outrageous International Hong Kong distributed the electronic pet from 2005 to 2006. The i Cybie robotic dog responds to sound, touch, movement, and voice commands. The toy robot can autonomously recharge its batteries using a special docking station. I Cybie was the first mass produced toy that used advanced voice recognition technology.

i Cybies can be programmed to respond to the voice commands of a specific user. Voice control is a form of speech recognition that is "speaker dependent". The RSC 300/364 microcontroller can process commands in any spoken language and features biometric authentication. i Cybie can detect its battery charge and will shut down when battery power is low or if equipped with a Walk Up Charger and programmable cartridge it will automatically seek out its charger and recharge itself. i Cybie uses five states or "moods" to determine autonomous behavior: happy, sad, sleepy, sick, and hyper. Moods are calculated based upon the cumulative count of interactions derived from the sensors. Users can tell the current mood/state by eye color, posture and type of behavior (i. e. yawning when sleepy or peeing when sick). I Cybie is advertised as developing or evolving according to the environment and user treatment. The result was that a number of software and hardware tools were created to allow users to manipulate i Cybie's behavior. YICT (Yanni Idolizes iCybie Tweeking) is a program based on the reverse engineering efforts of a robot enthusiast known as "Aibopet" and is one of the user developed tools designed to program a cartridge using either a Silverlit Downloader or a Super i Cybie. The one time process makes it possible for the robot to be programmed with a new personality and to serve as a programmer (downloader) for other i Cybies. Users have noted that the Outrageous International i Cybie cannot be hacked in this manner. A Super i Cybie can also be completely reprogrammed in C language "from the ground up" with a user developed software development kit (ICSDK) to create new firmware.

The i Cybie firmware was designed by Micom tech HK on behalf of Tiger. Research by i Cybie Fans has determined that Hasbro owns the firmware rights, having acquired Tiger. There appear to be three models of i Cybie; 88011 (Tiger/Silverlit), 88012 (Silverlit) and 88013 (Outrageous/Silverlit). Each model displays minor differences in component arrangement and structural detail and there are several circuit board versions for each model. It is not generally known whether there is a noticeable difference in firmware between models based on these differences.

The Hong Kong based Toy Company Silverlit built the prototype i Cybie and presented it at the 1999 American International Toy Fair in New York City. The early prototypes looked very similar to Sony’s ERS 110 in appearance but were meant to compete at a significantly lower consumer price. Tiger Electronics acquired the rights to distribute i Cybie in 2000 and spent more than 2 million dollars to further develop the robot. The i Cybie robotic pet was set to be on the shelves in December 2000 in time for the seasonal increase in consumer spending. However, difficulties in development caused Tiger Electronics to postpone the initial release to early 2001. Natalie Jeremijenko's Feral Dogs Project teaches students ecology at the University of California San Diego using i Cybies modified with pollution sensors to seek out chemicals. Recently (prior to 2010) inventor Andy Filo was interviewed and commented "[i Cybie] is still probably one of the most complex toys that was ever sold on the toy isle".