Deconstructing Product Design

Pleo

Caleb Chung and Ugobe, 2007

1. An animatronic dinosaur from the creator of Furby, Pleo is an example of a new class of entertainment products referred to as “social robots.” Social robots communicate and interact with humans in behaviorally plausible ways. Although Pleo has a ways to go before approximating a real cat or dog, it is not as far as many think — when Pleo tilts its head and “purrs” in response to a head scratch, it is easy to forget that it is an artificial being executing preprogrammed social behaviors. Caleb Chung comments: “All that matters is what the user perceives. Once you create organic movement and add just enough emotive cues, people will suspend disbelief — they’ll fill in the rest and fall in love with Pleo.” ...