Hasbro Tooth Tunes toothbrush makes you a loud mouth
posted Feb 25th 2005 10:08AM
Any parent will tell you that getting kids to groom their pearly whites is all too often like, well, pulling teeth. Some Hasbro executive had the brilliant idea of keeping kids entertained while scrubbing those molars: enter "Tooth Tunes," a toothbrush that plays a two minute riff to span the ideal amount of brush time recommended by dentists. The clip, stored on a microchip "no bigger than a dot atop the letter i," (that's rich) is triggered by a button on the brush. A minicomputer uses bone conduction to send sound waves first through the front teeth, then to the jawbone and into the inner ear (not unlike the Jawbone, SwiMP3, etc., incidentally). Hasbro is currently chatting up several pop stars for the rights to their songs, but will any of them bite? And will the kids complain that it has no screen?
I know this seems trivial on the surface - and it is - but anything that makes brushing teeth fun will be a godsend to parents. I expect Hasbro to sell out rather quickly, and I'm sure we'll see other manufacturers jump on the singing toothbrush bandwagon before long.
There truly is no limit to where technology can go: even into kids' mouths. Imagine that.
Carmi
http://writteninc.blogspot.com
I can see this being one of those give-away toys at fast food chains. Kinda a make some sense - eat the nasty food and then brush the taste away to the new Toy Story theme.
·j
Nothin says "Hip Hop Hygene" quite like a blue-eyed white kid brushing his teeth. Cause, really, what parent's wouldn't want thier kids to have the dental hygene techniques of Flava Flav?
"...And will the kids complain that it has no screen?"
Only if they're Engadget's kids.
The problem I see is what happens when the kid gets sick of the song (which will likely happen fast). I'll tell you what will happen...the kid will stop brushing his teeth.
Now if you could upload your own song, we'd be in business....I can see kid's brushing to "Straight outta Compton".
This is actually an extension of a product that came out about 6 or 7 years ago (and flopped shortly after, IIRC). It was a musical lollipop holder. Similar to those spin pops, only it played a tune through the stick and when you clamped your teeth down on the candy it played in your head. They had the ads for it on very frequently during afternoon and saturday morning cartoons. I really wish i could remember what it was called . . .
Ha! i found it:
http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=HAS&script=461&layout=-6&item_id=63052
It used an FM radio, so you don't have to worry about getting sick of the song. Perhaps this toothbrush does, too? It's all Hasbro, so I would imagine that they just stuck the Sound Bites guts in a toothbrush.
Must have really hard bristles for bone conduction to work.
Didn't this come out a long time ago?
how is this powered?
With the swear-y kind of rap the kids are going to have brush their teeth and then wash their mouths out with soap...
I had a thought for a similar product, which I posted at whynot.org last month. I was thinking in terms of an electric toothbrush with a recordable 2 minute audio player. Then you could either record: a song from your computer, an inspiring affirmation, a short poem, or the agenda for the day.
trc
why not make the music really, really loud? then the sonic waves would remove the plaque from the kid's teeth, or something...
pretty soon, we'll all have kids who have shiny white teeth but are deaf as a post
OraWave makes a better product called the Tuned Musical 2-Minute Twin Spin toothbrush. It's being carried by Wal-Mart after April 1. It's better for kids because the music plays AFTER two minutes of brushing (recommended by dentist.) It has two rotating bristle heads, the two minute timer, and comes in very cool graphics that tweens and teens like a lot.
wow, novelty heaven just keeps getting better! where can I get of some of these?
This is nothing new. A company called Orawave was into the tuned musical toothbrush market first with a superior product called the Tuned Musical 2-Minute Twin Spin toothbrush. Unlike the Hasbro brush --- Orawave’s has a replaceable head, comes in 4 cool designs, plays 8 DIFFERENT tunes so you get a different tune each time you brush, has a 2 minute timer, twin heads and plays music only AFTER the person has brushed for the full 2 minutes - a reward. And it sells for less than $7. Dentists recommend you change your brush heads every 3 months and since Hasbro's brush heads cannot be replaced, you will need to shell out $10, 4 times a year! 4 replacement heads for the Orawave only cost about $8 TOTAL. Hasbro's is a bad rip-off of the Orawave brush.
I suggested this to Phillips, Sonicare for their top of the range toothbrushes. Now I see this comapny are doing it, and what's the latest from Philips a toothbrush that has Crest® toothpaste in it - yea really original!!
This thing should be wireless and Play's For Sure on it, or maybe because of the 2 minute restriction it should have custom songs from the likes of Kraftwork or Daft Punk that make it to two mins - who knows maybe they will be chart toppers with everyone on Top of The Pops dancing with a toothbrush, With Chris Evans hosting it (don't forget your toothbrush :E)