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ROBOT ENTERTAINMENT EVANGELIST - That is the title on Mr. Hide
Kitagawa's business card. Hide has made his mark training robots to
entertain audiences all over Japan. On tour with the Tokyo City Promotion
Show, Hide has now entertained audiences worldwide.
Hide's robot of choice - the Sony Aibo. He explained the Aibo is more than a
toy. It's complex programmability, or trainability, makes it ideal
for his purposes. Indeed, the little Aibos do seem to be trained rather than
programmed. Sony's latest generation of Aibo, the ERS-7 (Entertainment
Robot System 7) is noticeably more like a real dog in
appearance than previous models, almost puppy-like.
During the show Hide is on the stage, but it's his robots which are the
focus, interacting with each other, doing tricks, even dancing in unison to
traditional Japanese music. What you cannot gather from static photos is the
life the robots seem to take on as they go about their routine.
While Hide has always used the Aibo, there is no connection between his show
and Sony Corporation, the Aibo's manufacturer. Hide is independent. He
supplies his own Aibos and takes care of any need for parts or repair. Not
an inexpensive hobby at around $1,700 US per Aibo. Hide has performed with
as many as 50 Aibos at once but now uses 5 new ERS-7 models and 5 older
ERS-210 models.
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