IDOG

Sega Toys QUEENSLAND UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

IN THE FIRST of a new series, we dig into the Cosmos archives and look back at what was exciting the technology world in days gone by. Some have aged well, while others make you wonder why they were ever invented at all.

In this issue go back to when, if not the cosmos, Cosmos was young – issue number four in 2005 to be precise – and the world was being introduced to the pet robot pooch idog.

The device, one of several products to be released that year on the back of the still-novel ipod, was made by Sega and was a music composer, speaker system and dancer all in one.

The idog came with hundreds of inbuilt fragments of tunes and would, on request, dynamically string them together and boogie away to them.

If you wanted your own music, you could plug in an MP3 player such as an ipod, channel music from there into the dog which danced to the beat.

In 2007 an upgraded version, idog Amp’d, was released with stereo speakers. That year it also became part of a Happy Meal promotion with Mcdonald’s. In 2009, Sega released the stuffed idog Soft Speaker and the idog plush puppy. Sightings since then have been rare.