New Virtual Pet Boasts Advanced Sensors And Human-Like Development Skills

Forget about Furbys and Tamagochis. Those are super ancient compared to toymaker Takara Tomy's newest release, Ducky the Healing Partner.

Ducky has six internal sensors throughout his body, and responds appropriately to being touched, carried, talked to by the user with expressive eye movements. Ducky also develops from a not-so-understanding, simple barking dog to an intelligent humanoid one that can speak over 650 words in Japanese. At full maturity, he would be able to greet you, ask you about your day, wish you a happy birthday, and sing duets with you at karaoke. Yes, kinda scary. But nonetheless quite high-tech. It'll follow your sleep schedule, and you can program it to nap while you go out and wake up when you come home.

Close to 20% of Japanese currently own pets, and communicating effectively with canine companions has become a national obsession. I want a Ducky. I might even trade in my real dog for one, cuz this one doesn't poop.

Comments

[Jure]

Looks cool, any chance of linking it more in depth Takara Tomys page?

I also tried looking up for a video, but couldn't find anything.

[kalik]

I got this from my parents for Christmas (special pre-order through a credit card company's catalogue) - mainly because the whole family wants a dog but since I work and my parents travel around quite a bit, no one will be able to take care of it.

At first it was kinda creepy having a weird robo-dog but it's been a month now and I think it's really cute. It may be a while before they release it in the states though...

When we get tired of having him around, we plan on giving it to my grandmother.

[Uchiha Sasuke]

Is there a way to order this in the US, either by Ebay or other international online store?
Thanks.