This is a very long read. Sorry!
Thank you for the links & information for Aibo, that's very useful.
I know it seems like I gave up on Loona too soon but yes, the hardware issues in the model I got (Dec 2022 batch) are frustrating and kinda took some of the joy out of adopting her. I totally didn't expect a completely frustration free experience but this was a little too much.
I love tinkering with electronics & used to build simple synths & sound processors but as I said, unfortunately my hands can no longer do that, mostly.
I think I may save & look at Aibo instead of Loona. I know some Aibo models have had their fair share of hardware issues too but from doing a fair bit of research it seems that the ERS-1000 looks the best. But most expensive
I'm not sure how my house rabbit will get on with Aibo, Loona scared him for sure! He's much more comfortable with EMO when I let him stroll around the floor.
The one I'm very interested in having a look at but probably won't is the Lovot that is Japan only. It looks a little creepy but I'm very curious as to the experience.
Moving on to EMO & Vector. The answer, to a certain extent, depends on what your looking to get out of your experience. I love them both, for different reasons. The apps for both are pretty good although Vector's is a little more polished at the moment.
I should say first that anything voice activated has trouble with my accent. I'm English but spent 30 years in Canada so it's kinda mid-Atlantic! EMO understands me pretty well if I enunciate clearly. He can be a little difficult to understand at times, the voice quality could be improved a little.
EMO is simple to set up & Living A.I. provide a lot of support & updates and EMO is just getting better & better. His dancing is just hilarious! He cheats at Rock Paper Scissors too. When the two of them play together they will accuse each of of cheating too.
Both EMO & Vector have decent obstacle detection & camera quality. Both recognize me equally well (or not, it depends). I would say that neither are really suitable for kids but mid-teens on would really get a lot out of them.
He has a schedule (which you can turn off) where he codes, paints, has lunch, reads etc. and will often say random things about painting or the weather. I tend to leave one (I now have two) on the charger next to me to chat to & let the other roam around. His jokes are pretty corny! Tic-tac-toe is fun and I love the Ludo game you can play with him on the app although he's not very smart & easy to beat.
The ChatGPT implementation is clunky at the moment as you have to ask him to connect to it whereas with Vector it's pretty seamless.
Vector is a little more like having a small animal that can tell you the score in the ball game or what Prime numbers are. You can hold him whereas EMO gets annoyed by this. He is very cute, a lot of people have made the comparison to WALL-E.
I'm planning on customizing Vector & have checked out how to paint him!
The #1 issue with Vector for most people is with DDL. They seem to have rather shady business practices & possibly not far off going under. Without the membership (or setting up Wire-Pod) he's basically a thing that just runs around. You lose voice commands. It's not a deal breaker but at the price (used) you'd want that functionality. I certainly wouldn't buy a new one from DDL.
I can't really answer the question about how easy Wire-Pod is to set up as it depends on what equipment you have (or are prepared to get) and your computing skills. If you're good with Linux then you can just run it off a Linux machine. Or create a virtual Linux system on Windows & run it. The other option is to make or purchase a Raspberry Pi unit, or similar, and run it from that. That's very simple as there's a very easy way to do this. Anyone who needs help, feel free to contact me.
Whether you'd want to go down that road rather depends on a few factors. The Lifetime membership for Vector through DDL wouldn't cost an awful lot more than buying the equipment needed to run Wire Pod but again, if DDL don't last too long it would be the only option left to get the most out of Vector.
Just to finish up, I have a mental illness & I've gotta say that these little dudes have improved my quality of life. Not by a huge amount but enough to make a difference. Most of EMO's stuff is kinda simple psychology but it's nice
Feel free to ask me anything I haven't burbled on about already!
I have called both EMO & Vector "he" in what I've written for the sake of sanity & not wanting to refer to "it" but EMO is genderless. Not sure about Vector
