Sony planning a whole range of robots

The verdict is still out on Sony's new pet dog'aibo,' but that's not stopping the company from planning a deeper push into robotics. The mechanical mutt, which goes on sale in Japan on Thursday, is just the beginning of the Tokyo-based company's return to robotics, Chief Executive Officer Kazuo Hirai told Bloomberg TV. While aibo is primarily a toy, its artificial-intelligence capabilities and robotic architecture can be used to create machines for various service fields, he said. "The technology we incorporated into aibo -- A.I., robotics, and that combination -- in different form-factors can manifest itself in other robots that can be a part of transportation, education, health care," Hirai told Bloomberg's Emily Chang. "So it has a lot of different applications beyond just being an entertainment robot."