Posted in Business, Design, People, Virtual Communities on Aug 3rd, 2007
The ability to speak (voice) is now part of the main Second Life viewer per “The Second Life Voice Viewer is Live!” a 2 August 2007 post in the Second Life Blog. 45,000 plus viewers have downloaded and tested it. Voice is an optional feature and is turned off by default. It is available everywhere, […]
Posted in Business, Design, History, Keychain Pets, Live pets on Aug 3rd, 2007
Bowlingual, a small handheld device for interpreting the barks of your “real” dog was announced by a Takara press release on 10 June 2002. The Japan Acoustic Laboratory’s “Animal Emotion Analysis System” formed the basis for the invention. A database of voiceprints was developed for comparisons. Takara handled the planning and marketing. Dreams Come True, […]
Posted in Design, History, Robotic Pets on Jul 29th, 2007
Released back in early 2005, we include Choro Mode Pet here due to its unique method of control. A little cable connects the small robotic pet to the headphone jack of a Japanese mobile phone. The pet is then controlled by the “sounds” of you pressing the keys. For example: 1 to go left, 2 […]
We find these pets extremely interesting. Although somewhat basic, they reopen an old category (Sea Monkeys) and open a new one (direct Internet to virtual pet interaction via flashing lights) that may provide many opportunities for future virtual pet designers. The brief instructions below come from their online instruction manual. You can also watch a […]
Posted in Design, Plush Pets on Jul 26th, 2007
Panasonic showed a new fiber at the Tokyo Fiber 2007 Senseware Exposition in late June 2007. Other reports indicate it could have been introduced at a similar show in Omotesando in late April. Panasonic’s new patent pending No-Constraints carpet available in white, brown, and a combination of white/black that looks like a skunk’s tail comes […]
The QR Code at left says “Greetings from the Virtual Pets Blog. Help us encourage greater utilization of QR Codes in Virtual Pets.” QR Codes are basically two dimensional bar codes invented in Japan by Denso Wave. They can store several dozen to a few hundred times more information than ordinary bar codes. QR code […]
