Rating: 7/10, An effective demonstration of how lifelike robots can be. The success of Sony’s Aibo saw lots of other robotic companions released over the years, including Pleo in 2007, designed by the co-creator of Furby. Instead of a cat or dog, Pleo took the form of a baby Camarasaurus dinosaur (whose body afforded plenty of room for electronics) that offered lots of interactivity by leveraging a camera powered vision system, touch sensors, microphones, a gyro, infrared communications, and force-feedback sensors in the joints. Unlike the Aibo’s hard plastic shell, Pleo’s soft skin encouraged people to touch it, but despite having a much cheaper $349 price tag, it didn’t take long for the bot to go extinct.