stuffed animals
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Stuffed Toys Alive! replaces mechanical limbs with strings for a much softer feel (hands-on)
It worked just fine for Pinocchio, so why not animatronic stuffed bears? A group of researchers from the Tokyo University of Technology are on hand at SIGGRAPH's Emerging Technologies section this week to demonstrate "Stuffed Toys Alive!," a new type of interactive toy that replaces the rigid plastic infrastructure used today with a seemingly simple string pulley-based solution. Several strings are installed at different points within each of the cuddly gadget's limbs, then attached to a motor that pulls the strings to move the fuzzy guy's arms while also registering feedback, letting it respond to touch as well. There's not much more to it than that -- the project is ingenious but also quite simple, and it's certain to be a hit amongst youngsters. The obligatory creepy hands-on video is waiting just past the break.%Gallery-162161%
Pinoky makes it easier to pretend like your stuffed animals are real friends (video)
Seated above, from left to right, are Ms. Snuggleberry, Mr. Cuddlekins, and Professor Puddles. They congregated atop this egg yolk for what they thought would be another customary meeting of Mammalian Malice -- a vaguely neo-Jacobean slam poetry collective founded in the aftermath of the Crimean War. Little did they know, however, that they were walking straight into Yuta Sugiura's trap. Sugiura and his colleagues, you see, have created a toy known as Pinoky -- a small, ring-like device that wirelessly brings stuffed animals to "life," as Snuggleberry, Cuddlekins and Puddles soon discovered. Developed as part of a project at Keio University, Pinoky uses a micro controller, a Zigbee input device and a servo motor system to move an animal's extremities, with a set of photo sensors designed to measure the angle at which it bends. All you have to do is grab your favorite imaginary friend, strap a Pinoky around his limb, and use the accompanying remote controller to make him flail around like a fish on house arrest. See it for yourself, after the break.
Wind Rider Cub and Gryphon Hatchling image gallery
Though it took longer than expected to receive them and FedEx decided it was a wise idea to throw them into the mound of snow next to my well-shoveled porch rather than placing them on the porch or (gasp!) ringing the doorbell so I could accept them myself, my house now has two new guests. The Gryphon Hatchling and Winder Rider plushies now have resting places atop my significant other's desk, where they stand vigilant to inflict cuteness on whoever may need it. In the gallery at the bottom of this post, you'll find a number of pictures of them, held by my little sister because there simply wasn't enough cute in the plushies alone. Like most licensed Blizzard products, these plushies are very high quality. I was almost surprised by the amount of work put into the little details. The necklaces (bibs? zoo-tabards?) worn by the plushies are embroidered. They're not screen-printed felt or anything like that, so I don't expect they'll come apart anytime soon. The plushies also shipped in individual drawstring bags to carry and store them in, so they're not exposed to the elements when you inevitably shove them in your closet because really, are you going to keep these on display forever? Probably not! I do still think that $25 price tag for a stuffed animal is incredibly steep, but considering what people were willing to pay for in-game pets alone, it's not anymore expensive than what you would usually pay for a Blizzard product. Keep an eye on the site, because we might have a pair of these to give away in the coming weeks. %Gallery-86639%
HANNSpree debuts line of plush TVs for tasteless tots
We all know how much children hate television, so sometimes it's necessary to be a little sneaky, especially when looking to give them their minimum daily requirement of the "Fair & Balanced" -- that's why we're lucky that HANNSpree is on the case. The company, known for it's particularly uglified and just plain bizarre display devices is debuting a line of plush animals (including an elephant, giraffe, panda, and polar bear) with televisions embedded in their sides -- just the thing for concerned parents who need to trick their kids into watching. With any luck, Junior will soon be rattling off the nine principles with the ease that you once let the names of the four Monkees roll off the tongue. Pretty sweet, right? It's time for you to get back to The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care -- but not before eyeballing that gallery below.
