Maker

cams, and other parts had to be custom made to very fine tolerances. If a part didn’t work, Chung modified it until it did — but that introduced friction that could stall Furby’s motor. “[Chung’s] design was brilliant and sound in principle,” says Richard Maddocks, now a senior principal designer at Hasbro. “But there was a huge amount of stuff packed into a very small form factor. No one had ever done this before. I didn’t redesign Furby — I just helped it run reliably.”

First, Maddocks put in a bigger motor to overcome the friction. Then, he created new parts to replace Chung’s oft-modified (and worn) parts. After some final tweaking, he got Furby working reliably enough to debut at the Toy Fair.

Chung also readily admits he was lousy at overseeing his time and that of the engineers and machinists he hired. (At the same time, he sings David Hampton’s praises: “He’s a virtuoso in digital design and programming — a great talent who, until Furby, never got the credit he deserved.”)

Tiger, too, can be faulted for slashing Chung’s prototyping budget (from $60,000 to $40,000) and not keeping a closer eye on the progress of Chung’s work, which, after all, involved making something that no one had ever made before. “We were undermanaged,” says Chung. “God knows, I needed a manager.”

What did Chung learn from the Furby?

“I thought I could run the process and manage a group, but I made some bone-headed decisions,” says Chung. “I never made that mistake again. At Ugobe, I invent, I come up with ideas — but I let someone else manage and do the tooling and engineering.”

Apparently the lesson stuck. Chung’s next project, creating the Miracle Moves Baby for Mattel, won high fives all the way around. Ivy Ross, the senior VP in charge at the time, lauds Chung’s dedication and ability to execute.

“Caleb really understood the emotional connection [the doll] needed to have with kids. We didn’t have this kind of expertise in house. Caleb showed up and collected a whole group of experts who made it happen,” he says.

36 Make: Volume 08

www.makezine.com/08/interview

The Soul of a New Machine?

The Great Furby Debate may never be settled. As the old saying goes, “Success has many fathers.” The acid test for Chung will come when Pleo hits the market. Will it work as advertised? Will buyers embrace Pleo as their robotic pal, or dismiss it as a novelty? Chung’s reputation and his worldview are riding on the results. But Chung is simultaneously bullish and realistic.

“I think we have something magical,” says Chung. “When I showed off Pleo at the Demo 2006 show [see makezine.com/go/pleo], I realized this moment in time would be remembered in the history of man-made life-forms. They’ll say, ‘These people didn’t have all the tools, and there were all these restraints, but they tried to do this for real.’ Still, I don’t have to prove something to the world. Pleo is going to be what it’s going to be.”

But if Pleo lives up to half its promise (and a fourth of its hype), it will raise a host of intriguing and troubling issues. Is Pleo an autonomous life-form? Is he sentient? Can he feel?

“All that matters is what the user perceives,” says Chung. “Once you create organic movement and add just enough emotive cues, people will suspend disbelief — they’ll fill in the rest and fall in love with Pleo.” Besides, he adds, he’s not even sure it is suspension. “I think Pleo really does these things.”

But if Pleo or his successors develop even a tincture of self-awareness, don’t Chung and company have a huge obligation to these new creatures and their human owners?

“Of course we do — especially for a creature that plays to the human heart,” says Chung. “An invention like Pleo can fundamentally change society. That’s why we want to be first, to set a responsible tone. These machines are extensions of us, how we think and feel. As much as we’re going to get monsters and creatures we don’t want around, we’ll also get beauty and magic from artists who really know how to create,” he says. “Great art tackles the great issues of our time. That’s why we’re digging here — we’re digging in the right place.”

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