Virtual pets are nothing new. But the land that gave us the Tomagotchi is about to deliver the first physical virtual pet-- in other words, a robot.

Sony's AIBO resembles a dog, much like Star Wars' C3PO resembles a human. AIBO (which stands for Artificial Intelligence roBOt) also means "buddy" in Japanese, and that's what these amazingly lifelike robotic dogs will become. The robot contains 18 motors (four for the head, three for each leg and two in the tail) that let it walk, sit, sleep, beg, and perform a host of other dog-like actions.

A remote control emits tones that the robotic dog "hears". The remote puts the dog into one of three activity states: lying, sitting, or standing. Within each state, the dog performs one of five to 10 actions, based on the key pressed. The motions are surprisingly fluid and lifelike, and the robotic dog can walk as fast as 20 feet per minute.

That certainly won't set any speed records, but it's amazing to watch a robot move around the room and perform actions that are so, well, dog-like. The robot is built around a 64-bit RISC processor from MIPS, and it includes a lithium ion battery that lasts about 1.5 hours. The robot commands are stored on an 8MB memory stick, Sony's new removable storage medium. You can also store sounds on the memory stick to control what the dog-bark sounds like. Imagine AIBO barking, but hearing Homer Simpson's "D'oh!" come out of the mouth. The possibilities are frightening.

In addition to performing preset tasks, AIBO owners can also buy motion editor software to program the robot. Although we didn't test the software, Sony claims that it uses a graphical, drag-and-drop metaphor, much like the Lego Mindstorms programming package. With this package, you can program the robot to do all sorts of interesting actions, including walking a set path like a watchdog.