Sony gets playful at Comdex

Sony is showing off a range of Christmas stocking fillers at its 10,000 sq. ft. 'e.playground' stand at Comdex this week, including its latest robot pet. Many of the gadgets are expected to hit UK stores next year.

As soon as the exhibit doors opened on Monday, the Comdex crowd rushed to catch a glimpse of Sony's latest Aibo robot, called the ERS-210. It is modelled after a lion cub and can recognise its own name as well as 50 other words. It also wiggles, waddles and 'blinks' its light eyes.

The metallic pet will be available from 16 November, and costs around £1000 in Europe and $1500 in the US. Sony has shipped about 45,000 of the electronic friends worldwide since the first batch was released in 1999.

The cheapest item on display was a $20 device called eMarker which aims to address that irritating habit some radio DJs have of not announcing every song they play.

Whenever they hear a song they like, users can zap the device at the radio which records when the track was played and by which station. Once at their PCs, users can synchronise that information with the eMarker software to learn the title, artist, nearest stockist and other information.

Many of Sony's devices feature its Memory Stick card, a storage device the size of a chewing gum, that can hold many hours of music. Originally unveiled at Comdex 1999, officials today showed off its latest iteration boasting 64Mb of storage space that can pack in four hours of music. It can also store data and video files, and Sony claims that the device is currently licensed to 117 companies.

The technology has also been added to Sony's latest PC110 camcorder. The $2000 machine enables users to take both still and moving images, and to email the results to friends and family.

Also on show is the electronic giant's N80 one-inch thick, flat-panel display that can be mounted on a wall or on a stand. The 15-inch wide screen was first launched at PC Expo in the summer, and a 18-inch version is expected to ship at the beginning of next year.

Sony also demonstrated a number of so-called concept products that have emerged from the company's labs and are waiting to be fully tested. Among these are a range of Memory Stick devices embedded with specific applications enabling users to turn a Memory Stick-supported personal digital assistant (PDA) into a digital camera simply by inserting a Memory Stick with a digital camera chip installed.

Other embedded applications include TV tuners, global positioning satellite systems and fingerprint recognition technology.

Also at the concept stage is a range of devices that can wirelessly connect to other appliances using the Bluetooth short-range wireless radio standard. Among the products are headphones, MP3 music players, mobile phones and PDAs.

One product that is expected on the market soon is a home photo printing machine which develops pictures taken with Memory Stick-supported devices. Users can bypass the need for PCs to print photos because the Digital Photoprinter can directly accept Memory Sticks or other PC cards. Users can still use PCs to edit their photos before printing.