Its not unusual for new technology to be over hyped and marketed 5 - 10 years before its time, such things become can become a fad for some then rapidly dissappear due to factors beyond the manufacturers control. Such was the case with the BANDAI TechPet or SmartPet
The problem it had was that the whole concept was that of a Robot Dog (with a tiny amount of the functionality of the top of the range SONY AIBO). But the unique selling point of the BANDAI dog was that it had a robotic body, but the brain and head were an Apple iPhone 4/4s or iPodTouch.
Now this seemed like a great idea and good use of technology, but at the time these phones were highly prized items, very expensive and quite frankly were being used as phones. As the sales of the BANDAI dogs were low the development of the technology slowed to a standstill and stopped.
What also contributed to the demise of the BANDAI TechPet / SmartPet was the ridiculous oversight of BANDAI not bothering to produce an English Manual, despite the device have onboard english instruction and help.
They also only post the TECHPET and SMARTPET Apple IOS APPS to the Japanese APP Store, which was as still is difficult for non-Japanese users to download from.
So we move on 6+ years to 2018 and the iPhone 4/4s phones are old, often discarded and lying around in quite significant numbers in households, possibly unused as they are relatively slow and their second hand value is low(not worth the effort to sell), or they have become kiddies APP players.
So in a series of posts I’m going to be taking another look at the BANDAI TECHPET and SMARTPET and I’ll start over the next few weeks by:
Putting together English Instructions
Putting together an English User Guide
Tracking down the TECHPET and/or SMARTPET IOS APP
Then I’ll power it up and creat some demonstration videos
Then I’m going to open it up and peer inside
Then I’m going to use new technology to control its body
I hope you come along for the ride.
