2007 Archive
Pleo Dinosaur — Herd Behavior
From the archive: this is a preserved news post from the original Pleo Dinosaur! enthusiast blog, written as Pleo approached his 2007 launch. We keep it at its original address for the historical record.
Originally posted June 9, 2007.
Pleo won't just be a very smart baby dinosaur — he'll be a very social one. One of his most delightful features is what the company calls herd behavior: the ability for multiple Pleos to notice one another and interact when they're in the same room, turning a pair or a group into something like a little family.
How the Herd Works
Pleos communicate using infrared signals. When a group of them comes into contact, some genuinely fun group dynamics kick in:
- The Pleos "converse" with each other over infrared.
- The group appoints one dinosaur to be the alpha leader.
- The alpha can then share tricks and behaviors it has learned — including things it picked up living with and interacting with you.
- The other Pleos can effectively "catch" those behaviors from one another, spreading learned tricks through the herd.
Why It's Special
This is the kind of feature that turns a single robot into a little society. Two Pleos raised in different homes bring different learned behaviors to the meeting, so putting them together isn't just twice the cuteness — it's an actual exchange, with each dinosaur a little different for having met the other. It reinforces the core Pleo idea: these aren't gadgets running identical routines, they're individuals with histories. It also gave two-Pleo households a reason to keep both dinosaurs awake at once, just to watch the negotiation of who would lead — a small, emergent drama no one had scripted in advance.
More on Pleo's Abilities
Herd behavior is one thread in Pleo's rich sensor-and-software design. See the whole picture on the specifications page, meet the dinosaur on What Is Pleo?, or read the Pleo reference for a summary.