Jindo/ARIN robodog eager to fill the AIBO void

We're pretty picky about the concept products that we bring you, and we're especially wary of anything that appears hand-drawn, but South Korean inventor Eungsang Park's claimant to the AIBO throne caught our eye for a wide variety of reasons (some good and some bad). Called either Jindo or ARIN (no one seems to be sure), this take on the robodog trumps Sony's dearly-departed by adding multimedia functionality (screen, speakers), realistic canine features, more horsepower, and, oddly enough, a sense of smell. Jindo/ARIN also sports numerous radios for communication and entertainment -- cellular, DMB, and WiFi (and probably WiBro), as far as we can tell -- along with a curiously-placed optical disk slot (or "room," as it were) and functional-but-silly joystick tail.  It's pretty unlikely that you'll see this little guy frolicking around the local dog park anytime soon, but if you start spottting little piles of DVDs in the bushes, you'll know what's up.

[Via MobileMag]

[Dirty Sanchez @ Mar 16th 2006 11:55PM]

Shouldn't the "joystick" be under the dog?

[Geoff @ Mar 16th 2006 11:57PM]

I find the placement of the DVD-ROM very disconcerting. But I guess most DVDs are crap anyway, so it makes sense.

[jygsaw @ Mar 17th 2006 1:12AM]

Holy sweet Moses, it's gonna look like that?

Muy creepy...

Hope the "navigater" screen works well.

[Si @ Mar 17th 2006 2:30AM]

"Emotion sensor" eh? Was this designed by Karl Pilkington?

[Keylogger @ Mar 17th 2006 2:36AM]

Great toy. I'll purchase one for my wife's birthday.

[Joe Hatfield @ Mar 17th 2006 3:21AM]

"DVD room" (slot?) and "voice recognition, antena" (ears?) This must have been translated using machine translation software. :)

[Greg @ Mar 17th 2006 3:23AM]

#5 I hope you do get this toy only for the 'joy stick' ;)

[Juergen @ Mar 17th 2006 4:21AM]

I really like the "button" button. Probably startes self-destruction countdown. But what is "in"?

[Melinda Chiu @ Mar 17th 2006 4:32AM]

oops.. I put a wrong email. As i was saying, dunno whether it will fight with my Tsun Tze Dog or not. Nice to have a more realistic looking cyborg dog.

[r.Bow @ Mar 17th 2006 4:39AM]

What it has joystick for? And as a matter of fact it looks very fantastical.

[ivan @ Mar 17th 2006 5:24AM]

much better design than the PS3 controller, and more innovative than the revolution controller.

seriously though, its like robotics meets video iPod or PSP. why not take it a step further and add legs to a tablet computer?

[Michael Soh @ Mar 17th 2006 7:43AM]

FYI. 'Jindo' is the name of a Korean dog breed.

[DT @ Mar 17th 2006 8:02AM]

Apparently, the mandible's name is mike. Hello, Mike!

[Dylan @ Mar 17th 2006 9:36AM]

I especially like the "in" and "button".

[R_Moon @ Mar 17th 2006 11:29AM]

it might be fun to see how it would act around my other dogs...

also "in" might be power in.....maybe?

[Derwin @ Mar 17th 2006 2:10PM]

not only is this the worst drawing of a robot ive ever seen, if you want people to take you seriously at least learn how to spell "navigator" and "antenna".

[andrew k from AZ @ Mar 17th 2006 3:12PM]

Wow. Definitely the "joystick" should be force feedback.

[Jaime Jones @ Mar 17th 2006 3:57PM]

is it me or is the dvd drive in the little dog's arse?

[Marek @ Mar 17th 2006 10:17PM]

I like how there's a mike in the mouth and then 'voice recognition' in the ears. It's clear that whoever drew this up is not familiar with robotics as there is no way those legs could support the body...