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About Caleb Chung
Caleb’s accomplishments and experience span entertainment, mixed media, and the toy industry, ranging from acting, writing, and producing critically acclaimed stage shows, to designing special effects for film and television, to toy inventing.
Caleb started out in the entertainment business in the 70’s, first as a street mime in California, and then acting and writing for various movies and television shows. In 1985, Caleb decided to go after a new challenge and accepted a position at Mattel Toys designing toys in the New Business Concepts R&D Division, where he generated numerous toys for all of the brands.
In 1990, Caleb left Mattel and opened his own toy design company “Giving Toys.” He then began developing products for Fisher Price, Mattel, Bandai, Hasbro, Disney, Microsoft Corporation, and Tiger Electronics. Caleb co-invented the 1998 Hot Toy of the Year “Furby,” which sold over 50 million units worldwide, generating over $1.2B in sales. Essentially a talking mogwai, the Furby spoke its own language, could communicate with other Furbys, and connected with its owner. In 2006, Caleb co-founded UGOBE and in 2007, UGOBE released it’s first “lifeform” Pleo, a super realistic robotic dinosaur pet,. Pleo was named one of the coolest inventions of 2007 by Popular Science and featured in Wired, Make and Forbes magazines, and is currently selling worldwide through Innvo Labs (www.pleoworld.com).
Mr. Chung is regarded as one of the premier product designers in the country and was named as one of the nation’s Top 10 Innovators by Forbes Magazine. Caleb has spoken at a number of institutions and conferences, including Siggraph, MIT, The Tech, Pop!Tech, EG and TED.
Beginning in 2009, Caleb and his wife Christi have taken a very active role in supporting “ArtsWest,”a private non-profit school for the performing and visual arts, located in Eagle Idaho.
Q. When did you first get interested in robotics?
When I was young we lived in LA and went to Disneyland several times.That was where I think I first got hooked. It was pure magic for me. Beauty and Magic. That must have been around 1966 or so.
Q. As the inventor of one of the best known and successful robot toys, what was the biggest obstacle to overcome in creating it?
A. From a mechanical point of view, coming up with a mechanism that provided for multiple movements and expressions with a single motor was very challenging. From a character design point of view, Furby needed to be a believable, engaging companion that didn’ t have arms or legs (we couldn’t afford them). From a logistical view, Dave Hampton (Furby’s co-inventor) lived in another state, writing code for a brain 1000 miles away. From a personal point of view, it was a calculated risk because in order for Furby to have a chance, Christi and I had to stop all our other projects, which meant no income for the duration. It was the worst of times and the best of times, I’ll leave it at that!
Q. What are you up to now?
A. My wife Christi and I are helping out a new private school, ArtsWest (artswestschool.org). BTW if you ever want the biggest and most rewarding challenge of your life, start a school! Its a performing and visual arts conservatory style program grades 6-12. Its totally amazing, and our students are doing incredibly well, including the Jazz vocal students getting 5 first ballot Grammy nominations for their first CD! All academic scores are way above national averages, as well. In general, I don’t feel it’s more technology we need in order to create the next generation of robotics (or their authors), it’s more of the art side, the human element, especially if you are talking about personal robotics. Christi and my next big challenge at the school is to start a design program that directly blends the arts and technology. A multidisciplinary design program with an Imagineering feel .
Other than our main focus, at ArtsWest, we have a few other long term projects ranging from a few consumer robotics projects to a rather large museum installation (think floating AI ecosystem).
Q. What do you love most about what you do?
A. Knowing that in some way I am helping people, especially young people, to achieve their potentials.
Q. What is one thing about you that few people know?
A. I was QT the orangutan character on “Dumbos Flying Circus”.
Learn more about Caleb Chung.
Microsoft Releases Free Robotics Developer Studio 4 Software
Photos: 5 Dull, Dirty and Dangerous Duties for Robots
Video: Video: Boston Dynamics’ Galloping Cheetah Sets New Land Speed Record for Legged Robots
