Xiaomi launches its first robot dog, featuring smartphone tech

Remember that large, yellow robot dog that was occasionally seen roaming the US streets last year? Perhaps a certain viral Reddit video of one muttering uncouth words at a passing car from the sidewalk? (Shhh, you didn't hear it from us!) That was Spot, an experimental cyberdog created by Boston Dynamics, and the first of its kind to become available for the general public.

Well, it turns out Spot is no longer the only cyber hound to roam said streets.

Xiaomi has just designed its very own version of Spot, lovingly dubbed "CyberDog." It looks eerily similar in shape to its competing predecessor, although it's quite different in every other way. It's smaller and lighter than Spot, for one, sizing up at 15.7 inches and weighing 31 lbs, versus Spot's 24 inches and 72 lb. 

In an alternate dimension, Spot would be the German shepherd and CyberDog might well be a cocker spaniel (albeit much more eerie-looking, in our opinion). 

The newest trainable canine experiment on the front of artificial intelligence innovation features Xiaomi's own smartphone camera technology, built on top of Nvidia's AI-geared Jetson Xavier board, and a RealSense Depth module by Intel. (Yep, Nvidia and Intel have been doing much more than designing computer hardware lately.)

That last one means that CyberDog comes with some real-world orientation skills, with mapping abilities that allow it to make out its location and "see" it surroundings. Its hardware also allows it to reach speeds of up to 7.5 miles per hour, leaving potential for numerous trained sporting feats—such as backflips, perhaps.

According to Xiaomi, there are 1000 units of this new AI canine being ma—er, bred. They are being made available to the public for the meager price of $1,550, which does seem low when pitted against the $74,500 Boston Dynamics was asking for Spot. (Now, that hound must have been a purebred.)

What's cool about Xiaomi's CyberDog is that it comes with completely open-source software, allowing budding AI engineers to tinker with it and see how many tricks they can "train" the hardware hound to perform. It already comes integrated with both remote and voice activation, and features one HDMI port and three USB-C ports. All of it combined, there's plenty of room to play in for tech enthusiasts who make the purchase. 

Here is a video of the CyberDog elegantly prancing around a park, for anyone who is dying to see this new mutant creature in action: