babies
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PlayStation Moves into creepy ad business
We all know Sony likes to be a bit off the wall with its commercials, so this dystopian vision of a grown-up baby's trudge through corporate monotony shouldn't surprise us at all. And yet, somehow, it does. It's part of a pair of new ads destined for Latin America, the second of which awaits you after the break.
Study shocker: babies think friendly robots are sentient
There's certainly been no shortage of studies involving humans' interaction with robots, but a team of researchers from the University of Washington's Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences have now made one of the most shocking discoveries to date: babies can be tricked into believing robots are sentient. They made this finding by acting out a skit with a remote-controlled robot in which the robot behaves friendly with its human counterpart. Following the skit, they left the baby alone with the robot and found that in 13 out of 16 cases the baby followed the robot's gaze, which suggests the baby believed it was sentient. In contrast, babies only interacted with the robot in 3 of 16 cases when they were simply left alone with it without first seeing it interact with a human. What does it all mean? Well, it seems that a robot's human-like appearance is less important than its behavior when it comes to establishing trust -- or that all the robots need to do to take over is get us while we're young. One of the two.
Exmovere shows off Exmobaby biosensor pajamas for babies, coming to retail in 2011
Baby monitors have become quite commonplace over the past 20 years or so, and come in many variations. Exmovere (a company that previously produced the wearable Chariot) has debuted a new type of monitor, however, which are actually part of the baby's pajamas, and which are said to help monitor heart rate, emotional state and behavior. The outfit -- called Exmobaby -- uses the Zigbee wireless standard, effectively connecting the baby to the home wireless network, enabling the parents (or you know, whoever's around) to track the babies various states via icons on their mobile phones. Sound great? Well, it's heading to limited retail in 2011, though no pricing has been announced yet. Full press release is below.
Wii Balance Board used to create motorized baby buggy
Researchers from Ithaca College recently created an incredibly neat device to give a bit of mobility to babies who suffer from disabilities which keep them from crawling: A motorized chair which lets its infant pilot navigate using the Wii Balance Board. See, babies lack the motor skills required to maneuver a more conventional motorized chair, but this particular model taps into a baby's natural proclivity to reach for things they want, which registers on the Balance Board and steers the device. (The chair also has a remote control override, in case its occupant decides he or she wants to reach for a flight of stairs.) Check out an impossibly adorable video of this ingenious, pint-sized automobile after the jump.
Twoddler lets your toddler twitter and summon the Fail Whale #cute
So you think your baby's all Twitter-ready with that Kickbee while chilling in the womb? Nah, only practice makes perfect, so the folks at Belgium's Hasselt University came up with the Twoddler: a hacked Fisher-Price activity board with buttons linked to predefined Twitter messages. Obsessive parents can put photos of themselves on the buttons, so that whenever those buttons are hit the Twoddler tweets something like "@mommy I miss you." We like this idea, but then again you'll never know if it's just someone else's kids bashing the buttons -- you'll still feel good anyway. Watch some Twoddler action after the break.
Baby incubators made from Toyota 4Runner, Aunty Entity would be proud
Developing nations are often the recipients of used, donated baby incubators, as new ones cost about $40,000 each. Often lacking either the technicians or the parts to fix them, however, most of the incubators don't actually work. Enter Jonathan Rosen of Boston University's School of Management, who's ingeniously devised an incubator out of the very abundant Toyota 4Runner. The device is cobbled together using headlights as the heating source, the filters for air purification and the door alarm for emergency notification. The resulting incubator costs about $1,000 to make and can be repaired by auto mechanics, which is obviously good news for hospitals in need. The bad news? Dr. McDreamy's in the garage, "fixing" your car.
I am Ugly Baby
Babies are pretty harmless -- well yeah, they can't even walk. Most people think they are cute, while some aren't huge fans. No big deal either way. That is, until Babysitting Mania came along.This new gallery is an insult to babies all over the world, featuring pretty ghastly renders of a stereotypical bald little tyke. Babysitting Mania. It's a time-management simulation game, featuring teen girls taking charge over piles of babies in the most efficient way possible. These kinds of games can turn out to be pretty addictive, but the cuteness-challenged mascot isn't doing the game any favors so far.%Gallery-24673%[Via press release]
Ubisoft forum moderator explains forthcoming shovelware
It was only a few months ago that Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot was promising us all "Nintendo-like quality" games. Since then, the company has announced Raving Rabbids TV Party, Babies Party, Shaun White Snowboarding, and much, much less. It's a line-up that has generated only ripples of laughter on the internetz, rather than tremors of fear in Kyoto.The snickering is not limited to NeoGAF. Ubisoft's own forums have come under attack from those who are disillusioned by the company's planned Wii output, so much so that UK Forum Manager "Raide" recently had to ride to Ubi's defense. The gist of his argument seems to be: because the best-selling games on the Wii aren't necessarily the best games, it's actually okay for Ubisoft to release stuff that, well, doesn't have "Nintendo-like quality.""If you look at the most successful Wii games, they are not amazing new AAA games, they are predominantly family-orientated games/alternative games," explained Raide, adding that Ubisoft is pursuing the casual dollar because "parents who are buying a console for their children do not really care about Prince of Persia, Rainbow Six or Far Cry on the box."On one level, Raide's logic is fairly sound; after all, games targeted at the casual sector do sell well (particularly in the UK and Europe), and it's understandable that Ubisoft has shareholders to keep happy. But promising higher quality Wii games and singularly failing to deliver on that pledge? That's just weak. Hit the "Source" link below for Raide's full defense.%Gallery-23883%%Gallery-23972%[Via Kotaku]
Xbox Live (sort of) makes a baby
Much to its chagrin, the Xbox 360 is not literally capable of giving birth to human lives. What it can do, however, is bring two humans together over multiplayer (Rainbow Six Lockdown, if you're curious) and help them to make a love connection and produce the adorable baby you see in the pic to the right.Just to cover all our legal bases here we should mention that as cute Victoria Marie Figueroa looks here, you probably shouldn't put your own baby on to an activated 360. We do think though that parents Stacy and Mike have set a new bar for doing the towel trick completely wrong.[Via X3F]
How old is old enough to play games?
As people who make their living off of a video game blog, we tend to think that everyone should always be playing games (you know, when they're not reading about games on blogs, or diligently supporting the advertisers of said blogs). But we understand that some children are just too young, and some controllers are just far too susceptible to baby drool. MTV's currently trying to answer the question of "How old is old enough for games?" by interviewing some parents of gaming kids. But we're curious what you, the gaming population have to say: What's the youngest age at which kids should be playing games?%Poll-8716%
Ask Massively: Babies, rings, and the Wild West
Thursday again, and that means its time for round two of our new advice column, Ask Massively. This week we're tackling what will happen to Lord of the Rings Online in 2008 (with guest shots from almost all the Massively staff), as well as creating some MMO offspring, and why cowboys and indians haven't jumped on the MMO bandwagon yet.If you'd like to ask a question of Ask Massively, it's super simple-- just leave your question as a comment on this post to get it answered next week, or leave us a note via our tipline. This week's Ask Massively kicks off right after the jump, so click the link below!
Monica's AN24 monitors unborn child's heart remotely
While Monica Healthcare's AN24 fetal / maternal electrophysiological monitor won't go down as the first device to take a pulse on one's heartbeat outside of the hospital, it is being dubbed the "world's first" device to allow "mother's-to-be to keep a regular check on their baby's heartbeat without having to go into the hospital and be attached to a machine." The pocket-sized device operates on battery power, weighs under 100-grams, and specializes in "non-intrusive passive monitoring." Moreover, it can detect and differentiate between the mother and the baby's signals, and can transmit real-time FHR / MHR analysis data to via Bluetooth or USB to any applicable handheld / PC. Notably, the AN24 has gone from "a research device into a medically approved product in only two years," and if the EU testing continues to go well, the company expects the device to hit the market in the October timeframe.[Via MedGadget]
Playskool and Creative give birth to a healthy baby MP3 player
Considering that it has been made explicitly clear that iPods are not meant to be eaten or chewed on, the popular DAP is pretty much ruled out as a contender for the ears of our wee young ones. Thankfully Hasbro-subsidiary Playskool and Creative have teamed up to make sure that baby Apple isn't left out of the loop (you could be missing a key demographic, Steve). The "Made For Me" line of MP3 players is pretty scarce on details, but what we do know is that it comes preloaded with 50 songs, has a voice recorder, and can be used with other appropriately labeled "Made For Me" toys (sounds familiar). The device should be available come fall and is expected to retail for about $80. While we'd personally just stick a stereo in our kid's room and call it a day, we will reserve judgement and leave the parenting to the parents.[Via Shiny Shiny]
Would you trade your child for a PS3?
We didn't think that this PS3 stuff could get any more ridiculous, what with the theft, chaos and death that has ensued. But the lengths that some people are willing to go to get Sony's next-gen console are pretty insane -- besides braving the elements for days at a time, apparently folks are willing to sacrifice their own offspring for the chance at a PS3. Dave Ryan, a morning radio host at the Twin Cities' KDWB, earlier this week made a joking offer that the station would give a PS3 to anyone who turned their baby over to the station for 24 hours. A dozen people apparently jumped at the opportunity, with one caller offering her one-month-old infant, and another offering more than one child for three days. Callers were apparently very disappointed when they found out that it was just a gag. To his credit, the host tried to alleviate the callers' requests by saying "Listen, you're not the only one who fell for this," though we're not sure why wannabe negligent parents really deserve any reassuring.[Via PS3 Fanboy]
Wii superfan does not sleep (it's for babies)
In checking in with some of those who waited in line overnight for the Wii, we might have just been shown the world's biggest fanboy. While it is obvious he has some sort of speech impediment (could be sleep deprivation, but we think it wouldn't cause someone to talk like that), it hasn't stopped the internet from making fun of him by putting his face on a T-shirt.[Via Joystiq]
The Babykeeper: toilet training with visual aids
We've seen our fair share of strange and / or gimmicky products around here, but the Babykeeper by Mommysentials has to be one of the creepiest. This contraption allows you to hang your six to eighteen month old infant on the door of a public toilet stall while you, um, do your business. Now we're not questioning the safety of the device or the necessity of keeping an eye on your child at all times, but who in their right mind wants their little baby staring at them squatting over a dirty toilet, especially after they've dined at, say, Taco Bell. In the same way that its traumatizing for children to watch their parents engage in "adult activities" (or heaven forbid, be in the same bed), we can't imagine that it's psychologically healthy for Junior to get slung up on the back of a swinging door and be forced to watch Mommy heed nature's call every time they're out and about. The $60 Babykeeper may be the perfect solution for some, but we'll stick to the tried-and-true methods of either holding it in or paying an honest-looking stranger to act as temporary babysitter every once in awhile (this last parenting tip was brought to you by BloggingBaby).[Via Pocket-lint and Babygadget]
