I did some preliminary design work on one of those quite a while back. I
called it a C_MOUSE.
Never implemented. The cats I've tested electric-motor toys on didn't
seem to like them much. Upbringing might make a difference, but I
suspect gears and other noise and ozone smell and size makes them more
scary than attractive. I want to use compressed air, but the tech isn't
quite there yet.
Charlie Stross wrote:
>
> On Wed, Dec 27, 2000 at 07:36:54PM -0500, Ross A. Finlayson wrote:
> >
> > If you have live pets, and sometimes they are alone, then maybe the robots
> > could play with the cats and dogs.
>
> Ross, do you actually have a cat or a dog?
>
> I have a cat, and playing with her is rather ... demanding. Like a
> small child, she makes up rules as she goes along. Sometimes it's simple
> chase-the-string stuff ... but she varies her hunting pattern considerably
> and gets bored if I just drag it in front of her. And sometimes she tries
> to play head-games with the people around her. For example, she's got a
> dominance game where every time a human gets out of their chair she'll
> leap into it and sprawl out, taking posession: as if to assert her own
> ability to occupy human territory.
>
> I wouldn't claim that she's as complex as a human being, but I suspect a
> robot behaviourally complex enough to keep her amused would need to be at
> least as smart as a dog or cat. (Unless it was mouse-sized, furry, and
> designed to scoot into dark corners and squeak.)
>
> -- Charlie
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