6. AIBO and Pleo: Voices, Gambling

AIBO toys, the robotic pets designed and manufactured by Sony, are also occasional hacking grounds. One hacker, for example, was able to alter the voice of an AIBO ERS-7, making it sound less human and more robot.These toys use built-in cameras to see their environments and can respond to voice commands.

While AIBO owners may be tempted to teach their robotic pets new tricks by reprogramming them, Sony made it clear with a cease and desist letter to an AIBO hacking website that they don’t approve of users altering their products. They eventually released a programming kit that hackers can download for free, but only if they put their hacking powers to non-commercial use.

Researchers at Carnegie-Mellon taught an AIBO to click buttons on a MacBook with its paws in order to operate a slot machine computer game.

And at Roboporium, sellers working with toy-makers Kumotek are aiming to provide consumers with top-end robotic technology that inspires a love of figuring out how things work. They encourage students to work hands-on with robots by running programs where they can construct their own bots. Each toy sold at Roboporium is hand-assembled, so it would seem a shame to take them apart. Still, the spirit of hacking and building runs through their products.

Pleo is another robotic toy that tempts hackers. With the appearance of a green, newborn dinosaur, Pleo is designed to interact emotionally with its user and sense what’s going on in its environment. Hackers have adapted the cute, baby bots for other purposes though. In one modification, a Pleo owner carefully pulls back the toy’s rubber skin in order to insert a spycam into its animatronic head. After the delicate surgery, the robot will wirelessly transmit both video and sound back to a PC. The same hacker also uses an XBee board to monitor the Pleo’s sensors from his computer. Once it’s in place, he can control the toy’s movement remotely in real time.