Robots in the House

Scoty, pronounced Scotty, has no keyboard and does not require mastery of any specialised computer languages to nudge it to perform and reply in a likeable human manner, its makers said. While its name stands for Smart Companion Operating Technology, 8216;8216;Scoty is more of a companion than operating technologies,8217;8217; said Richard Yanofsky, president of WowWee, which is based in Hong Kong. For lack of a better term, he said, Scoty, which is 24 inches tall, is a 8216;8216;digital maid8217;8217;.

As robots increasingly migrate from heavy industrial tasks, like welding automobile chassis on assembly lines, to home uses as restless toys and venturesome vacuum cleaners, a fetching personality and appealing appearance become critically important. But robotics makers and experts say marvelous mechanics and electronic intelligence are not enough to lure consumers. Robotic novelties that could command steep prices from some early adopters are giving way to lower-priced products though still rather expensive for toys that offer personality, utility or both.

At the American International Toy Fair last month in New York, being a robot for a robot8217;s sake appeared to be a losing bet. Sony said it was ending production on its 2,000 Aibo robotic dogs, which are shiny and aggressively techie.

In the meantime, Hasbro announced that it was adding cuddly electronic animals to its successful and largely modestly priced FurReal line of toys, including a 30 baby chimpanzee. 8216;8216;The impetus for FurReal was that we wanted to make the most realistic plush animal that existed up until that time,8217;8217; said Sharon John, general manager of Hasbro, which is based in Rhode Island. 8216;8216;Robotics were a means to an end, not the end itself.8217;8217;

In a departure from its smaller toys, Hasbro is introducing what it calls a 8216;8216;realistic, life-size8217;8217; miniature pony, Butterscotch My FurReal Friends Pony, that will be sensitive to light and touch and will embody enough robotics to, among other things, turn its head to see who tickled its ears and shake its head after 8216;8216;eating8217;8217; its carrot. It will sniff and whinny and respond to soothing voices when it becomes frightened by the dark or by too much commotion around it, company spokesmen said. And it is made to bear the weight of young children and simulate galloping.

Even traditional robots, like WowWee8217;s Robosapien series, were packed with more personality than previous models. 8216;8216;The overall mission is to find ways of bringing robotics into useful interaction with people,8217;8217; said Colin Angle, chief executive of iRobot, makers of government and industrial robots as well as consumer ones, including its Roomba vacuum cleaners and Scooba floor washers.

8216;8216;We tried to figure out how to do that,8217;8217; he said. 8216;8216;The challenges are that high technologies can be viewed as scary and distancing.8217;8217; Besides, Angle said, his company, which is based in Burlington near Boston, is less interested in selling robots to 8216;8216;gadget people8217;8217; than to residents of 8216;8216;Middle America looking for better ways of living their lives and looking for a little help8217;8217;.

IRobot has sold more than 1.5 million Roombas, which cost about 300, since they were introduced in late 2002. Late last year, the company introduced the iRobot Scooba floor-washing robot, a 400 device that washes, scrubs and dries hard floors with no more prompting than a touch of a button.

The New York Times