September 17, 2005

• I think there's something in that for all of us.
• Pretty silly. A dog will defend itself from anything that attempts to get in between it and a piece of meat. You can't conclude that the dog is fooled into thinking the AIBO is a real dog. I remember seeing a clip on "America's Funniest Home Videos" of a dog eating a bone who kept attacking it's own back leg because the dog's leg naturally crept forward normally when it was eating. It never figured out that it was snarling at itself. This went on like 20-30 times with no sense of dawning recognition. Also for a computer science lab, they had some really crummy datarate from their server- it took forever to load that snippet even with my super-duper hi-speed cable hookup. In addition, I looked at their CS music projects which were either incredibly dull or incredibly stupid. Seems that Sony's CS researchers in Paris are being paid for essentially just wanking around with computers- that's what I do all day long though nobody's paying me for it. I don't mean to snark the link-it was amusing and I thank you for posting it. Sony, however has apparently a lot of money lying around to waste on idiot projects. (The AIBO is pretty cool though.)
• I'd like to see a real dog attack one of these.
• those screams at the end scared the bejeesus out of me
• Yeah, me too. "The horrible screams that you hear at the end of this film were made by the experimenters, who were startled to see the dog attack the AIBO." The scream was more startling than anything the dogs did.
• Cool video, but old. The ones I'd like to see are from the RoboGynoid division tests. "Oh, get away from her, Akira, get away...!! AARRGHH!!!"
• I seriously am not trying to start the old "xyz dog breed should be banned" shite, but what the hell is with the dog in this video? Is this a common reaction for a dog and a piece of meat? If that was my dog (and I haven't read enough yet to know if the test subject was a "family pet")... well, let's just say that I wouldn't allow that dog to be around people on an everyday basis.
• My dog's terrified of a Devil mannequin I own. The few times I've made it stalk around on the floor she's run and hid under the sofa.
• I seriously am not trying to start the old "xyz dog breed should be banned" shite, but what the hell is with the dog in this video? Is this a common reaction for a dog and a piece of meat? If that was my dog (and I haven't read enough yet to know if the test subject was a "family pet")... well, let's just say that I wouldn't allow that dog to be around people on an everyday basis. Meh. This is actually a pretty even-tempered and good-natured dog, especially considering it has an EXTREMELY high-value item and is being very rudely harrassed by the fake dog. It tolerates the Aibo until the Aibo gets too close, it gives good, clear, gradually escalating signals that it doesn't want the Aibo to get any closer (stiffening, hard staring, snarling, probably growling), and then it lunges. I very much doubt there was any actual biting (just lunging and tooth-flashing), what the dog does is the next logical step in the progression from "Hey, back off, this is mine, okay?" to "I TOLD YOU TO GET THE HELL AWAY!", it's not vicious or unwarranted by any means, and I wouldn't in any way consider this dog to have a resource guarding problem, it's extremely polite to the Aibo (treating it as another dog) until the Aibo goes well past acceptable levels of dog-rudeness. And many dogs will guard things against other dogs but would never guard them against people (especially not if they've been raised properly and not by people who think it's a good idea to harrass dogs while they eat, take their food away, that sort of nonsense which CAUSES the very thing it's trying to prevent). This is actually a very nice example of good dog communication in action, I'd have that German Shepherd in my house happily, that is a dog who is extremely tolerant and patient (even of a robot dog which is often the sort of thing that really upsets dogs, since it looks like a dog but doesn't smell like a dog, or use proper body language) and gives a TON of warning before even escalating as far as a lunge (which is NOT a bite or an attack, it's still a warning), this is the sort of dog which is extremely unlikely to actually bite anyone or anything unless they are well past clueless, ignoring what the dog is telling them and harrassing the dog to boot. The scary dogs are the ones which don't give warnings (often they've been taught to do that by owners who punish the dog for growling rather than addressing the underlying issue), not dogs like this one.