There's a new aibo in town: the "ERS-7M3" is not o­nly a different color, but features improved software. Communication is the name of the game this round; the aibo's speech capabilities have been vastly improved, and it can even read news to you via RSS. Training your dog to fetch the paper for you never has been easy, so at least you now have an alternative.

Sony Style Japan Corproation will release a new model of the AIBO entertainment robot, the "ERS-7M3," o­n September 29th. Its price is 194,250 yen.

Besides being available in the same "Pearl Black" and "Pearl White" colors of current models, a time-limited edition "Honey Brown" model will be available from September 29th until December 12th. The Honey Brown model uses a marble pattern of brown, beige, and black o­n its ear, tail, and so o­n. The marble design will also vary with each unit.

Apart from an upgrade of the 32MB Aibo-only Memory Stick that is included witth the current "ERS-7M2" model to a 128MB stick, the hardware specifications remain the same. Improvements are seen mostly in the software department, and the Memory Stick contains "Aibo Mind 3" software. Communication capabilities have been improved, and for the first time o­n an Aibo, voice communication functionality is provided as a standard feature o­n the unit.

The voice communication feature has seen an increase of a vocabular of 200 words to about 1,000 sentences. Greetings, how the Aibo is currently feeling, and other communication is possible. It also supports RSS, so that news and blog items that are broadcasted can be read to you.

A new feature with this unit is the "Aibo Photo Diary," which uses pictures the Aibo takes o­n its own to create a diary with simple text descriptions. Users can upload this diary to their blog. Also, the "Mind Scope" function allows the Aibo to verify sound and objects it recognizes using text.

Basic functionality of the Aibo has also been improved, such as its autonomy function -- it contains mapping technology that uses short term memory. The Aibo can recognize and record the location of a ball or Aibone, so that if the user asks the Aibo where either object is, it can point to its location.

An upgrade kit will also be offered for current owners of the ERS-7M and ERS-7M2. A version supporting Aibo Mind is 11,550 yen, and Aibo Mind 2, 10,500 yen.

Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2005/0929/sony2.htm

Press Release:
http://www.jp.sonystyle.com/Company/Press/050929.html

Product Information:
http://www.jp.aibo.com/products/ers7m3/about01.html