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[mweed]

I had a chance to spend about 45 minutes with Derek Dotson of Innvo Labs earlier this week.  Here's what he had to say!!


Mweed: Hello Mr. Dotson, and Welcome to the Bob the Pleo forums!

Derek: Hello there.  Good to meet you.  I don't know if you're members know who I am. 

Mweed:No, honestly I don't know that much about you, other than the press release from Jetta.

Derek: I never got much advertisement back in the day. Caleb Chung and I actually wrote what Pleo was to be before there was a Pleo.  I was an original founder of Ugobe, actually.  I sorta got wiped off the pages of history.

Mweed:Wow!  I didn't realize that!

Derek: My rough history was Caleb gave me a call, Chung obviously, and said this toy company wants this dinosaur, so come on down here and let's basically work it out.  We wrote what Pleo is today in about three pages of documents.  We sent it to the company.  They liked it.  They paid us for some prototypes, then dropped us after about two months.  I then spent the next year or so looking for money for Pleo.  Bob Christopher started up Ugobe based on that concept, and off it went.

I just kinda laugh because I've been like Pleo's reincartaion.  I was in originally, during the development, saved him once, found the money to build him once, and here I am agian.

Mweed:Which brings us to the question, where is Jetta headed with Pleo?

Derek: Jetta, and by the way, when you say Jetta, it's now Innvo Labs.  They separated it out and created a Hong Kong based company.  They did it so as not to upset their customer base.  It's been a fairly recent thing. 

We can definitely say with assurity that we anticipate carrying on for multiple years to come.  Well over 3 to 5 years.  And that with every year you should see either a hardware improvement that's quite noticeable or a software improvement.  What we're striving for is to keep the R&D budget growing on this every year.  And that we release what we would call high-impact personality modules so that your new pleo can do something the previous generation could not.  One of the overall things we're working on is that you see an improvement: changes in the color, skin, possibly in the shape, definitely quieter operation through motor selection and gearbox re-design.  Those are things we are actually looking at.

Mweed: Are you looking at making changes to the hardware as well as software?

Derek: Yes.  Pleo is going to improve over time as technology changes and as we can invest more into the software. Our vision of pleo is, well, much more than it is today.  The goal is to improve the product so that it becomes more pet-like.  We're going to expand the personality modes,

Innvo Labs has kind of a different vision for Pleo [than Ugbe did].

Some of the hardware changes you'll see on October 1st are we found an improved, longer lasting paint.  We had complaints that the paint wore off over time.  The new paint should last at least 5 times as long.  They ran all the standard tests and got, well, actually ten times improvement, but I'm trying to be a little more conservative than they were.  Let's just say “a longer life paint.”  That’s a good way of putting it. 

The second big thing they have done is they have designed a brand new battery charger.  What this boils down to is a better battery charger that will extend the life of the battery and extend the play time of each battery charge.  They found a way to optimize the charge.

Mweed: Will this new charger be available to order for people who already have a pleo?

Derek: Yes.  The battery is the same chemistry, same technology.  With this first shipment [in October] we won't have the charger available.  The next shipment will.  Not October, but the November time frame.

Mweed: But still in time for Christmas . . .

Derek: Absolutely.  Absolutely. 

Mweed: So, if I have an old battery, say a year or two years old, this new charger will help bring it back to life?

Derek: That's what they told me.  Yes.  The new charger will not only work better for new Pleos, but will work better for the old pleos you already have.

What they have done is, you know how you discharge a battery completely before you recharge it?  It goes through that type of cycle.

We also will have more batteries available on October 1st.

Mweed: Have you looked at going with a higher capacity NiMH battery?

Derek: That is on the board of things to do, but not this year.  Next year we will.  Definitely, but not this year.  There's just not enough time for us to do the testing.  We can also get some [additional] battery life through programming techniques as well as through higher capacity batteries.   And that higher capacity battery will be ready next year.  And it will be compatible with the existing batteries.  This year we’re sticking with the same battery-better charger, with the higher capacity NiMH coming out next year.  We are also looking at the lithium option next year.

We're also redesigning the packaging for pleo.  Inside, instead of the Styrofoam, we’re using biodegradable paper, and little things like that.

Wires in the neck and the tail have been in fact strengthened and modified.  I can't say it won't ever break again, but . . .

Mweed: What about the skin, like possibly using a different material?

Derek: We are doing some experiments on some other lines, different materials.  The skin has always been an issue with us, and building the best pleo skin that we can.  We are continually looking at the pleo skin.  Ten years from now we'll probably still be talking about improving the skin.  It's a tough nut.  It's a tough nut.   

The pattern for this year will remain the same.  We are exploring some pattern changes and slightly different colors for next year.

Mweed: What about the eyes?  Are you going to offer different colored eyes?

Derek: Pleos being shipped out won't have different eye colors.  But, custom ordered colors is one of the things we're exploring.  It's on the deck, but no decision has been made yet.

Mweed: What about new life forms coming out?

Derek: Yes we are looking at new life forms.  They won't be available for this Christmas.  There's just not enough time.  But we are in development of new life forms.  We're looking around the December timeframe for making an announcement.  So, after we get past the Christmas rush here, we'll be announcing the new products for 2010.

Mweed: Now, before they went bankrupt, Ugobe was working on new life forms.  When you purchased the right to pleo, did you get all of their research, or are you doing development of your own?   
Derek: Actually we are doing development on our own.  We did in fact purchase all of the assets, and some of the assets Ugobe was working on we're continuing. 

Mweed: One of the issues that always comes up about pleo is that it already is relatively expensive.  Now you are talking about making improvements, using better quality and more expensive motors . . .  Have you looked at ways to reduce the price of pleo so that it might appeal to a wider market?

Derek: The idea at this point is, as new generations come online, that we do our best to keep them at the old price, just more value for the dollar.  Rather than trying to make it really low cost, we'll cram more value into each pleo.  And I think that's the direction we really want to travel here.

One of the things we're looking at with the new life forms does have a lower retail price.  We are coming out with (I won't say cheaper) less expensive companion pet.

Mweed: What about a new version of LifeOS?

Derek: We are working on the lifeOS.  In fact we are negotiating some contracts with ex-Ugobe people, like John Sosuka.  We're working on engaging a small group he's putting together to help us with the LifeOS.  So I think you'll see things move forward with a team that already knows Pleo.

Mweed: What about the PDK?

Derek: Let me give you a little thumbnail.  You can download the PDK for free.  It will be available on the website.  For personal use, make whatever you want and make as many copies as you want.  The only thing we want is if you plan to turn something into a commercial product, that you need to come back to us for licensing.  We'll be very liberal with the licensing agreement.  We just don't want people going off and making money without bringing us along.  And also when you go commercial, that way we can provide support.  Now here's the key.  We're giving it away, but we can't really afford to provide support, so we're looking to do that through the bloggers, forums, and such.

The weirdest thing is, it's been done a long time.  We could just never get the legal document right.

Mweed: Have you guys looked into a repair service for broken pleos?


At this point, our repair philosophy is we get the unit, if we can fix it, we fix it.  If we can't fix it we have the option to replace it with a like unit. 

Now, there is a guy who worked with Ugobe.  I won't give his name so he won't get bombarded with questions.  He has an interest in fixing pleos.  We talked about supplying him with skins.  He fixes them and put a new skin on and ships it back.  So basically it would be your very own pleo.  We're talking broken neck, cables, maybe a cracked PC board, but not the brains.  So, the personality of your pleo would come back to you.  It would have an updated skin.  It takes about an hour and a half to strip a pleo down, fix a pleo, and put it back together.  That's what you would be pay for: labor.  It's not a done deal yet.

Mweed: What about the reincarnation program Ugobe had?

Derek: We are looking into that.  I've brought it up in committee and they seem to like the idea, though I can't really say a yes or no on that.  I'd give it about a 75% chance that we'll do something on the reincarnation program.

Mweed: What are your plans for PleoWorld? 

Derek: We're trying to rebuild it.  I'll just start turning pieces of it on as we're ready to handle it.   The downloads.  The personalities.  We're planning on getting tech support back next week. 

The store is actually going to be a big thing for us.  The store on the web site will be the only distribution in the United States.

Mweed: So, you're not going to be selling through Amazon and others?

Derek: As soon as they run out of stock, they run out of stock.  So we'll be the only game in town for the U.S.  From there we'll also handle international sales with countries that do not have distribution agreements.  There are a few countries working on agreements with Innvo Labs, but I'm not really sure which ones those are.  I've just been told I'll have to pick up the slack for what left of the world.

Mweed: What about the plogs and forums?

As for the Plogs, in the end we will, but temporarily we're not going to do that.  It's a manpower issue.  So what we are planning on doing is we want to support you guys to serve as leaders in that area.  Maybe next year we'll change that, but for this year we're not.  In the forums world, if we get that started, it would be a developer's forum.  Now, we do have plans for a "pleo facebook . . . "

[49er]

Wonderful!!!   Thank you for the interview and posting it here!

[mweed]

It's really just the condensed version with the highlights.  We spoke for quite a while.

And he promised to join us!

[gucci_boi7782]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!! THANK YOU MWEED!!!

[justbede]

Thanks mweed thats great stuff , not quite sure what to make of these "Innvo Labs has kind of a different vision for Pleo [than Ugbe did]." "The goal is to improve the product so that it becomes more pet-like". I personally loved ugobes vision of pleo, an all thinking, all feeling lifeform and that a side effect of it being so, is that they make the perfect pet. I know the hardware isn't great, i just hope they don't forget to up the OS considerably and get the most out the available tech. The last thing pleo needs is more unused tech (points to nose cam).

[Dadio]

I offer my thanks as well. It's this kind of open dialogue that will keep the community just that "a community".

You sure hit the highlights we were wondering about!

Great job. if there is anything else worthy of print PLEASE when you have time put it up. 

[fancyfont]

So interesting to hear from Derek Dotson. Enjoyed reading your conversation. Peeky might really end up in rehab.

[Pleonardo]

Thanks Mweed for doing the interview. It really makes me feel that Pleo will have a solid future -- unlike just a couple of months ago when Ugobe went under.

[tkdgirl368]

WOW this makes me so excited!!! I can't wait to see what the new pleos will look like (i would love to have my own custom pleo, that would be so awesome). I also can't wait to see what the new lifeform will be... hmmm maybe another dinosaur? I hope so ^_^

[Lornex]

Interesting interview, Mweed...

Looks like good news, although I'm quite worried about the skin they will be using. I really, really wish they could get permission from Hanson Robotics to use FRUBBER, which would be PERFECT for pleo since it can stretch easily and is very strong. 

Quote on Hanson Robotic's site about Frubber:

"Frubber™, the elastic polymer that makes realistic facial movement and speech possible while being stronger, more elastic and using only a fraction of the power required for existing materials. Frubber™ has potential to become the future of prosthetics applications, facial reconstruction and many other uses."

*Sigh* Well, at least I can look forward to Zeno anyway... 

[b blue eyes]

Frubber, that is really interesting.  I am intrigued that it is elastic polymer and thank you for posting this Lornex. 

[Junkroxy]

Great interview Mweed! I cant wait to see the new pleo and get the chance to get one of them

[yodasapprentice]

Thanks Mweed!!!! Cant wait to see the first batch of new Pleo's, and to get my hands on the new cradle & Battery

[Darkwolf]

Incredible interview mister Weed. Thank you so much for sharing this with us!

[Pleoguy]

 A great interview with positive points. New life forms? great, can't wait. I just hope that they interact with Pleo. Best of all it's comforting to know that Pleo officially lives!

[denodan]

Thanks for the interview. Looks postive and finally we can get into serious robotics by the looks of things in the future. It things like the PDK that will have people take Pleo as a serious robot, not just a toy by many.

Will be great to see serious robotics here again when  the PDK starts and maybe different personailties made by members here.

All this is great news for Pleo and will increase his sales due to his software being hackable and will be great to see serious robotic Owners here again.

A great new life for Pleo, looking foward to seeing what people will be able to do with Pleo and new personailites being able to be downloaded.

[justbede]

yep should be interesting times but the community here makes pleo that bit more special.