I wonder why no one has mentioned the Icybie robot dog. It does almost everything that Aibo does and is a lot cheaper. They still have web pages and think they are hackable. I bought two on Ebay and gave them to my grandson.
Oh I forgot to mention that I not only build robots but I collect different models from the past and have a nice but small collection.
Bill

i have been looking for something like that

Thanks!

i doubt it could do all that face recognition stuff though

You are correct in saying it won't do face recognation, it doesn't. A fact little known is that Aibo face recognation was supplied by Evolution robotics, the makers of ER1. I assume that stands for Experimental Robot #1. The Icybie is automous and will explore you room or house until its batteries die. You can also directly controll it with a remote and make it do all kinds of tricks. Being that it uses a remote make me wonder if someone will hack the remote and tie to a pc for some really nice programming.
Bill

its still awesome for the price compared to the aibo

It really is an awesome toy. I bought two of them off Ebay and now my teenage grandson plays with them. They were just a small part of my robot collection. Sometimes you can find them on Ebay real cheap. I only paid $50 for one of them.
Bill

whoa, ive heard the battery life is really short, is that true?