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Robotic Dogs Just As Comforting As Real Dogs?

Surprises

from the less-to-clean-up dept

Wed, Jan 25th 2006 8:05pm — Mike Masnick
New research is apparently claiming that robotic dogs, like the Aibo, have the same beneficial impacts on human caretakers as live dogs. It's not clear how accurate the study is, though. It seems to be based solely on how the owners of the robotic dogs responded to questions concerning how they feel about the metallic schnauzers. It's no secret that people can bond with their robotic dogs, but that's still a stretch from saying the actual impact is the same between robotic dogs and live ones.
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16 Comments

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  • identicon
    dorpus, 25 Jan 2006 @ 8:54pm

    Dogs raise your blood pressure

    I'm about to turn in an assignment tomorrow, analyzing NHANES data of over 20,000 Americans evaluated for blood pressure and social variables. Our analysis found that owning a dog raises heart rate by about 0.5 beats per minute, with a p-value of .01 and a variance inflation factor of 1.03.

    In the interests of public health, people should get rid of their dogs. ;-)

    Or not. It's likely an artifact correlated with personality, income, or other factors not recorded in the study.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Rickler, 25 Jan 2006 @ 9:22pm

      Re: Dogs raise your blood pressure

      Or heart worms you can get from dogs licking you in the face; however, that's quiet rare.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Shelby, 26 Jan 2006 @ 8:40am

        Re: Dogs raise your blood pressure

        You're an idiot if you think you can get heartworms from a dog licking you. You MIGHT get an intestinal variety of parasite from a dog if they have recently licked their anus (where your head is located) and they have the larvae in their mouth area. Heartworms are transmitted by a intermediate carrier called the mosquito and only the mosquito can trasmit the heartworm larvae and then it has to go through another stage in the dog before it develops into heartworms. You get heartworms from mosquitos and yes cats carry them and people can get them FROM MOSQUITOS!

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 26 Jan 2006 @ 8:36am

      Re: Dogs raise your blood pressure

      P value too low to verify that claim, don't you think?

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Shelby, 26 Jan 2006 @ 8:42am

      Re: Dogs raise your blood pressure

      In other words, your study is not validated and remeber, correlation does not mean causation. You must be a first year student ;0)

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        dorpus, 26 Jan 2006 @ 8:48am

        Re: Dogs raise your blood pressure

        Or you're an uneducated person who has a knee-jerk reflex of repeating the cliche that "correlation is not causation". There is a complex art of showing that correlation, odds ratios, and other associations can, given sufficient supporting evidence, imply causation -- but that is beyond the scope of techdirt.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Saucy Del Mar, 25 Jan 2006 @ 10:17pm

    No Subject Given

    I wonder how a pet rock would measure up...

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      blorpus, 25 Jan 2006 @ 11:51pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      I wonder how a pet rock would measure up...

      About as well as a pet dorpus.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    m0u5y, 25 Jan 2006 @ 10:58pm

    No Subject Given

    no poop no pee... no attitude.. maybe.
    No fur, now if it can fetch the paper and kill the next door kid... whahah.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Andrew Strasser, 25 Jan 2006 @ 11:31pm

    They may not be as comforting.

    The technology may however be completely comforting. I am very comforted in knowing that they can now teach a robots brain to work like a dogs. Let's never forget Furby though, he who changed the face of the world. Not even allowed in a govt. facility.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    giafly, 26 Jan 2006 @ 2:36am

    Existing Pet Replacements

    There are already lots of pet substitutes, such as soft toys, plushies (NSFW) and security blankets. So presumably a lot of already people benefit from these things.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    dorpus, 26 Jan 2006 @ 8:48am

    Robotic dogs extinct

    Incidentally, Sony is going to stop making aibo dogs in March. Yeah yeah, some people will have a hissy fit because the article isn't in English.

    http://www.mainichi-msn.co.jp/today/news/20060127k0000m020125000c.html

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Female, 26 Jan 2006 @ 9:39am

    No Subject Given

    Electronic replacements for real flesh have their place and time but can never fully supplant the inherent benefits that come from getting the real thing.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Hamid, 26 Jan 2006 @ 9:18pm

    Robot Dogs

    Excellent idea. But would they have the same sense of smell.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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