CONNECTIONS

3) "Daddy's Tie (to the Internet)" - A necktie connected to a drawing applet/application. When kids draw on the applet version of the necktie, the real necktie is updated with the drawings. Could be implemented using paper-pc / cloth-pc technology.     5) "Electronic Tattoos", "Electronic Fingernails", "Electronic Iron-Ons For T-Shirts" - Using micro-media's printed PC technology, kids could make digital tattoos they could wear - they could play a sound if they attached themselves to a speaker.     7) "Battle Armor" - Kids like to battle with nerf swords and nerf arrows and the like. Make nerf armor pieces that change color depending on how often or how hard they have been hit. Limbs that have been "lost" could stiffen up to let the user know that that limb is unusable.

4) toys that allow kids to communicate with other kids around the world

5) toys that allow kids to communicate with animals, plants

Squeezing and expaning(see-saw): Two objects is virtually conneted. if one is squeezed , the other is expanded. Vice versa. So, this can be a sort of haptic communication way for only two kids. Action-reaction is adopted.

Messenger toy: This is not for personal belongings. A kid record his/her voice and some movement to this toy. And then, next day, he give it to a friend. The friend hear the sound and see the toy's motion and then record his answer. And continue ... There is a personal key to play the recorded sound for him. Lcd can be applied to show indication the frequency of communication with it. Like damagochi, if it is low, it show some sign of sadness. Each kid can have each toy. And with the same concept above, they can exchange them.

3. Travel Echo. A gps enabled device that you carry while travelling. It records snippets of audio in it's environment and uploads them to some central database. Later when someone with a similar device comes to that same spot, they hear an echo of those who have come before them. I think the trick here would be in not making things too easy. It should not be possible to play the audio for some arbitrary location without actually going there. It should also try and avoid people specifically recording a certain something but rather wait for 'candid' audio moments.

4. Gathering Amulets: We make severeal different 'brands' of amulets, each representing a different clan with a different backstory. The amulet is a device that glows or hums or vibrates when it is near to other devices of similar clan, perhaps inconsistently, perhaps after some sort of delay. Also, perhaps it shouldn't glow if amulets from other clans are also present. The idea being that kids are always left wondering who is in their clan, trying to meet others from their clan. Maybe there can be some kind of greeting passed from amulet to amulet, similar to the audio echo above. (Think Highlander, hopefully without the swordplay. There can definitely be more than one.)

5. Haptic Twins: A doll or plush toy is bonded at manufacturing time with another identical doll that are sent to geographically and perhaps culturally disparate locations. When one is moved or posed the other moves to mimic. Again, perhaps audio of some kind can be passed between the two, not literal recordings, but snippets, fading in and out perhaps.. The idea is not that things turn into haptic tug of war, but that each doll is 'inhabited' by the spirit of another child. Potentially, the doll that your doll inhabits, and the one that inhabits that your doll would not have to be the same. IE, the dolls wouldn't be strictly paired but just inhabited by 'another' doll. Obviously there are issues like what happens if nobody ever buys the doll yours is paired with.

1. Eco-toys Create a series of toys that would allow kids to connect unseen processes with those that they do see. A simple spectrometer, allowing them to measure the make up of substances, could be used to take soil readings for a plant they¹re growing. The sensor would alert them when they¹ve over- or under-watered, and when the plant needs nitrogen. A weather station with barometer, thermometer, and GPS capability can be hooked up to the Internet to display the real weather data for their area. Underwater sensors could be developed to build into a submarine that could be remote-controlled to inspect water temperatures, pressures/depths, and salinity, acidity and water purity levels.

7. Living Friendship Bracelets Bracelets that glow and swirl with color when worn. They light up and play clips from your favorite song whenever they are in proximity of your best friend¹s matching bracelet, as long as hers is being worn, recognized by a skin galvanic sensor. The closer two matching bracelets are in distance, the more they begin to emulate one another¹s color patterns. When not worn, they automatically turn off.

THE DIGITAL TORCH Here's an idea for a major worldwide event to help launch the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Before each Olympics, a small group of runners carry a torch from Athens to the host country. We would like to add a collection of digital torches, carried by millions of kids all over the world. The kids would carry the digital flames on their wrists, in specialized Olympic Swatches. To pass the flame, kids would simply bring their wrists together, and the flame would jump from one watch to another. The ultimate goal: to pass the flames all the way to Sydney. Swatch would produce five different Torch Watches, each one resembling a different colored ring on the Olympic flag. To create a new flame, a group of five kids wearing the five different color watches must put their hands together. A new flame glows on the watch faces, along with a unique URL. On the Web, kids could add pictures and messages to "their" flames -- and see visualizations of all of the flames. Each flame, over time, would represent a community of kids from around the world. There are games associated with the flames. Kids gain points each time they pass a flame; with enough points, they can start a new flame. Flames must be cared for; if they are not passed frequently, they die out. During the opening ceremony, the lights will dim, and hundreds of children in the stadium will hold up their hands, their watches glowing red. These children (chosen for the key roles they played in the torch relay) will each be carrying one of the flames that made it all the way to Sydney. They will then run down onto the field, and one by one, will touch their watches to a large digital torch (a tall, thin Jumbotron). An enormous animated flame will ignite on the screen, where each piece of the flame will be an image of a child who carried it (like an animated version of the photomosaics created at the Media Lab). This activity would connect kids together into a worldwide community -- and help them understand how local interactions can achieve global results.

Followers: A set of toys with a learder toy: if kid moves a leader toy in some trajetory, the other toys traces it in a certain time interval or behave in same way from its position. Kids can create patterns of the movement of them. (a toy that remember its pervious trajectory and repeat moving along with the trace has been developed and implemented by Phil of TMG) card with voice chip for passing secret messages, perhaps via IR  

- diary connected to other kids' diaries from around the world. You tell it your troubles and it finds a diary entry from another kid with similar concerns.

8. TeleToy: Using networked toy technology (i.e. the PIA Penguins and Rob Poor's Hyphos), I think it would be interesting (and challenging) to develop an open-ended toy character that could be regularly updated via a remote network, like a living cartoon. The combination of sensor reaction to the real-world (like Furby) and the influx of new information from the network could be particularly compelling. How could these two technologies be merged to develop a character that is convincing and entertaining over the long term (as opposed to Furby, whose behaviors eventually become predictable); and not dependent on proximity to the TV for content (like Barney)

TEACHING TOYS

5) Above Average Card Table - Uses real cards, but keeps track of them. Can teach kids how to play new games, or be an automated playing partner.

6) Instrument with teach mode - Display shows music, keys/drum heads/ valves lite up in conjunction with notes. As the player gets more advanced, can set to only turn on key lights when a mistake is made. If designed well, should teach not only to play, but also to read music. Should come up with a good way to teach improv.

Sign language toy: A certain motion of arms or legs trigger a specific sounds and display text on LCD to convey the meaning which is contained in the motion. It will teach sign language to normal children as well as the handicapped children in very natural way.

1. Coaching Baseball and Bat A talking baseball that tells a child how hard he/she hit the ball and gives suggestions of how to swing the bat to improve his/her techinique and form.

8) a toy which measures how much you have learned each day

7. CHILDREN'S VIDEO CAMERA Simpler version of a normal video camera, but with built-in editing capabilities and "fun" functions (i.e. special effects filters, character filters, etc…) Should also be digital so that kids can download their movies and send them to friends.  

2. Digital Recorder trigger kit This would be a digital sound recorder, a speaker, and a kit of triggers and cables for kids to set up gags of various sorts. Triggers could include motion detectors (to work as alarms), piesoelectric sensors (digital whoopee cushion), timers, IR remote control, sound sensor (telling people to "Ssshhh"), light sensor, etc. Could include prerecorded sounds from action movies, funny sound effects, and a cable to record sounds downloaded from the net. The kit could also include ways to disguise the gear as coffee mugs, picture frames, etc.

3. Robot "Director" Essentially a simplified computer interface to a group of robotic toys with speech synthesis and motion capabilities. Children could write scripts for robots to act out (even adapting plays and screenplays they read in school) and watch as they walk around and speak to each other. There could also be a web site with scripts of famous scenes in theater and film, allowing kids to watch them played out on the living room floor.

comic-cam a wireless camera for taking, augmenting and trading of images (no camera storage, just in the moment storytelling). you can add blurbs of text. images can be sent to a central server for time relative comic sequencing.

--Movie Clip/Camera/Album The idea is to be able to have album with movie clips in the same way you have pictures. I imagine them in a format similar to a Polaroid picture.

8. remote controlled, child sized, vacuum cleaner. (with easy to empty dust bag...)

1. Programmable sewing machine (with a gLogo interpreter) In addition to the functionality of the existing version of this toy, children can generate their favorite patterns/embroideries in the gLogo language (a dialect of Logo and a cousin of G-code that many commercial sewing machines run on) which are downloaded to the sewing machine. Of course, you can also download a pattern you have found or a friend gave you. For safety reasons, once the sewing machine is running in the auto mode, it will automatically shuts off if a child gets too close to the moving parts.     9. kids do it youself space probe kit I saw an item recently that somebody here at MIT was working on small cheap rockets (under $10) which could reach orbit (albeit with a very small payload). So an extension of this would be to make the payload consist of a cheap radio and a camera/telescope which could be used to do your own space exploring. (Bound to get any local aliens howling to the intergalactic vacuum protection league before you can even say Space Family Robinson - but it's interesting to speculate what could become possible if the current trends of smaller/cheaper continue for much longer.)

Mechanical Workbench An electromechanical attachment to your screen, that seamlessly connects virtual and physical events to create a great learning tool for mechanical systems. For example, you could have a string (with hidden electromechanical actuation) mounted to the top of your monitor, so that it appears that the real string enters the virtual world. In the virtual world, one could attach weights and when one lifts the weights with the real string you could feel the downward force. Now one could attach a pulley in between and feel the difference in force. Push against virtual springs with a peg. Etc.

- Safe wookdworking tools. I've seens a stapler meant for kids in which it's absolutely impossible to staple your fingers, yet it works perfectly. It would be fun to apply this concept to other dangerous tools so kids can have fun with those activities too.

HEALTH/SCIENCE

2) "Smart Soap" -- Soap which knows which part of the body it is washing, and will remind a kid when they have not washed every part of their body. Could be implemented with computer vision tracking brightly colored/tagged soap

? 3. Know-bodies toys (Mitchel came up with this name in a related project) In the spirit of the Beyond Black Boxes project (http://el.www.media.mit.edu/projects/bbb/) Know-bodies toys would allow children to monitor their own bodies during the day by assembling their own wearables. A cricket or RCX brick with a heart-rate monitor, a temperature sensor, and a GSR sensor can give children a chance to get a better sense of their own body and how certain parameters about their body changes during the day. They can choose from a wide range of biomedical sensors for assembling their wearables. They can see if the stories they can tell from the data matches what they thought their body was going through during the day. They could also make real-time wearable displays for these data. In addition to the obvious example of using digital displays, more expressive displays could be explored. For example, the color of a small pattern or image (an application for eink of course) on their shirt could change depending on the temperature or the music played from their musical jackets could be appropriately effected.

2) toys that help kids learn about health/medicine, biosensors

3) toys that help kids learn about science (e.g. electricity, weather)

4. Kids do it yourself gene sequencing kit. Definately under the toys from hell category, this would allow biologically inclined children (and adults) to play with easy gene sequencing (from insects say). Advanced models would permit you to create your own genome. (Technically this may well be practical in the real soon now...be scared.)

2. Self-Aware Macromolecules Molecules (SAMM): Imagine a molecular set that could "know" it's structure as you build it, such that it could tell you (via computer screen or voice recording) what molecule you had built. Sort-of like Triangles, SAMM would have 3-D structural awareness, including knowledge of stereochemistry; and it could access an on-line database of chemical structures to tell you what molecule you had built. - fisher-price DNA sequencer  

10. CHEMICAL COMPOSITION PEN A little electronic pen for wannabe engineers that will tell you the composition of anything you touch it to.

8. REMOTE CONTROL CAR WITH CAMERA So that you don't have to look at where the car is from a distance, but instead you see on a screen the driver's perspective. Can also link with other car owners to exchange features. For example, one guy has turbo boost for extra performance and yours has variable suspension, and you infrared each other to gain features. The features are already built in, but the "infrared exchange" unlocks them.

1. toy hammer with sensors for detecting what sort of objects it is being used on. Hammer would have an audio feedback which would discourage/encourage its use on certain kinds of objects. Parents would be able to buy or program different types depending on their social inclinations, so that some hammers would say something like, 'good kids don't hit other kids', (assuming that was the target), whilst incipient masters/mistresses of the universe could get something like 'the kids who hit the hardest wins'. Optional: Sale restricted to internet outlets which record names, addresses and social security numbers of who buys which type.

6. VR Stunt kites. stunt kites are those two string jobs that offer considerable maneuverability and scope for tricks. This model would have a very small camera mounted on it, and <here a miracle occurs> would tranmit a full VR field of what it could see to the person operating the kite. It would be interesting to see if you could build this so that it doesn't cause severe motion sickness, but maybe in that case it would make a suitable trainer for astronauts instead.

6) "Augmented Reality Kite" - A kite is rigged up with a lightweight camera, and the kite's handle is rigged up with a display. The handle is also rigged up with an IR beacon. If the kite sees the IR beacon, it can use it as a frame of reference to create a grid over the landscape. Virtual objects can be added to the landscape using the grid - dinosaurs, Volcanoes, etc.

world garden pick a location on the spinning world - zoom in and plant seeds. check in later, irrigate, maybe put down some mulch. see how they are growing and surviving based on real climate and weather conditions in that world location. sim garden with real world influence - but beautiful graphics. maybe collaborative. one could spell a message for a friend that would only be revealed when the flowers bloomed or died. (andrew witkin)     9. Remote control shark w/goggles A remote control shark that can swim up down and around in the water. It has a digital video camera that broadcasts to a pair of glasses so the child can see through the shark's eyes. Infrared Glasses - When I was in sixth grade it became pretty obvious that I needed glasses, which I hated wearing. Maybe I would have liked them a little more if they could have changed the view of the world that they gave me depending on my mood. So -- a la Steve Mann -- how about a pair of eyeglasses that could change tint, or become "rose-colored," or show me infrared or ultraviolet parts of the spectrum, sometimes. Maybe even kids with 20/20 vision would want them.

3) Clear/Break apart jet engine that lets kids see the inside of the technology and begin to understand how it works. I have seen models of car engines like this, but turbine engines are actually much simpler in operation than a typical piston engine.  

Powers of 2 A powers of ten video for physical toys. A powers of 2 toy would work as a toy in its regular state, but you could peel away layers of the toy revealing its inner workings at a more detailed level. the ultimate powers of 2 toy would let you put any object in a powers of 2 box and then "see" into that object at progressively higher levels of functional magnification.

4) A magic mirror that gives you arguments when you mismatch your clothes. With the camera behind the mirror and face recognition, you could record messages to be played back when the mirror sees your brother or sister.

10. Augmenting your site and hearing - out of the conversation with my son (now 11) A pair glasses that would overlay everything with the infrared data from that object. A hearing device that would alter the sound you would hear, for example to give the feeling that you are under water or sounds are Doppler shifted. In general things that change or enhance your perception.

B&W Glasses I know this isn't really possible without some active filtering, but having glasses that turned everything into black and white would be very cool. This would also be useful to learn elements of photography.  

BOOKS, STORIES

4. DIGITAL DIARY/JOURNAL/SCRAPBOOK Basically, it’s a digital book. Young girls can write or record diary or journal entries. They can annotate their entries with art, audio, video, photographs, etc…

9. LOW TECH COMIC BOOK Comes with pre-drawn backgrounds. You use magnetic characters and objects to build little scenes. Also things like blank cutouts where you can write your own dialog.

Jacob's Ladder Book Because of its unique folding, I think there is potential to turn this into a great story telling medium. With the inherent physical constraints of the mechanism, one could create something that lies in between a classic book and a non-linear narrative. Maybe it could be a picture book for younger children, where they have to search for something by folding the Jacob's Ladder in different ways.

--Automatic Pop-up Book The idea here is similar to the pop-up book, but instead of you having to pull thing and get motion when you open a new page, the motion will happen automatically.

6. Storybook elaboration kit A line of storybooks that come with accessories for clay modelling that allow kids to build action figures of the characters in the book. Basic kit comes with colored modelling clay and simple accessories; each storybook comes with new outfits/accessories. Children read the book and then can enact scenes from the book and make characters from multiple stories interact. There could also be a digital version of this which allows kids to design animated sequences with the characters of multimedia stories on the computer. The animation sprites could be translated between book modules to allow cross-fertilization of stories. Kids could then print out scripts or translate them into prose. Hybrid or novel animated characters could also be built and traded with other kids over the net.

eleanor's paper dragon pen that deposits dragon's in a digital storybook land. the dragons traverse the world and depending on where they are initially placed pick up characters on their backs, dance and fight making weather in the world change. they always (if they survive) end the story in a factory where they make and fly paper airplanes. the airplanes can be digitally unfolded and the player can write messages on them to keep and see next time they use the book. the message planes sometimes fly around during the stories and slay a dragon. (bettelheim)

5. PROGRAMMABLE DOLLS Like programmable bricks, but geared more for young girls. Allow girls to program behaviors for their dolls. For example, if a baby doll doesn't get fed for a certain number of hours, make it start crying. Sort of a "do-it-yourself" Tamagotchi.

9. Here is an extension of an idea that I got through talking to my daughter (9 years old): She wanted a doll that would follow her so that she would not have to walk along herself or push around in a stroller. In pretend play, she wanted the doll to have a little autonomy. I asked her if she wanted the doll to talk. She said; "no, not really". There are often times where she pretends that her dolls are her students or her audience as she puts on a play. I asked if it would be nice to have a doll that she can program to minimally acknowledge her presence; for example it could follow her as she walks around the room and talks to it. She seemed to like that idea (assuming she was not trying to not hurt my feelings). Extending this idea it would be nice if she could program her doll or stuffed animal to react to her in a special way; e.g. it would only respond to her voice or to its name. Additionally, the doll can record her pretend play session so that she can listen to it later.  

8) "What Did We Do Today Doll" - A doll / action figure which records information about its play environment and usage - which (real or dollhouse) room it was in, how it is being played with, which other dolls it played with... The collected data can be graphed and displayed for the kid to see what their toy does during the day.

2. Programmable barbi (maybe this already exists) A barbi doll which could be programmed to say different phrases by the child. Optional parental switch which loads phrases safe for mum and dad to hear.

10) "Sleep Doll" - a doll or stuffed animal which records what you say in the night and tells you about it in the morning. Or maybe this could be a pillow.

4. Storytelling Beanie Babies Seeing as how kids love collecting beanie babies, this would allow kids to download typed stories or voice recorded stories into their own beanie baby and then send them to their friend's beanie babies, giving kids the ability to start their own storytelling network throughout the community among owners of the beanbag toys.

3. Programmable Pet For all the kids who have parents that are allergic to animals, this would give children the opportunity to "adopt" a programmable stuffed animal that can be taught to bark at sibling invaders, retreive the newspaper, or play with balls and plastic squeaky toys.

5. Warm FuzzE: A small, portable creature (maybe it velcro-sits on your shoulder) that can digitally record your secrets like a diary. In addition to recording your speech, Warm FuzzEs have LCD screen (or E-ink) animated eyes and simple sound-making capability that gives them the ability to acknowledge your speech ("mmm!" and "uh-huh.."). They also have a tiny pager motor inside that will shake when the Warm FuzzE is full of sound and needs to be uploaded. Once the sound is uploaded, you have a diary recorded sound clips - maybe once speech recognition improves, the diary could actually upload into written format.

6. Accessory Magic: Currently, toy-makers try to animate their characters by putting the "smarts" in the toy, usually resulting in toys that are hard to the touch (= not cuddly). What if instead of plush toys having the batteries and electronics inside, they had the capability to connect to a "magic" accessory- like a bike, car or pony, that would respond to the presence of the plush toy by producing all sorts of digital "magic," such as flashing LEDs, speech, music, etc... This way, the toy itself could remain soft; and when you removed it from the magic accessory, it would be just a plush toy. The combination of the two would be the act that resulted in the magical traits, like Wonder Twin Powers activate...

4) "Tangi - gotchi" -- Just like a Tamagotchi, but with a number of sensors which allow it to sense the outside world --> bar code reader so it can eat food, rollers so it can be rolled around for exercise, etc. Embed it into a plush toy so the kids can play with a more natural looking toy friend.

7. Stringless Marionettes Puppets that move their eyes, legs, etc and mimic the movement of sensors on the puppeteer's fingers. That way, the puppeteer can remain concealed behind a curtain and the puppets look like they are moving by themselves.

9) "Medieval Weapon Construction Kit" - Package together a number of medieval weapon pieces: handles, blades, maces, polearms. As you assemble the pieces together, archival images of the weapon you built are displayed on screen.

5. Furniture/Fort construction kit When the kid gets it, it looks like a couch. It is built, however, entirely out of interlocking foam, wood, and pillows that is easily broken down and rebuilt into new pieces of furniture and forts. A child's entire room (dressers, bed, couches, chairs, desk) could be disassembled and reassembled as the child saw fit. The big problem with forts is they always broke down because the pieces didn't lock together. In the kit, all the pieces could have puzzle-like edges to keep them together.

5 very simple, small, and cheap, slightly mobile somethings, that could be programmed with a small set of behaviours, and could then be put together in groups to explore the emergent results. Suitable in particular for the war games crowd, who seem content to spend days moving small model armies across boards and throwing dice to get the same effect, but behaviours could be purely mechanical, or social (10 bots vary in how much they want to get close, get away from specific other bots...what happens?) Anyone for american football

? 5. mini-mini golf construction kits This is inspired from the story Mitchel told about his own mini-golf course in his backyard and a project Mike Petrich and Karen Wilkinson did with a group of kids in the Science Museum in Minnesota. The toy proposed here is a construction kit for designing your own mini-mini-golf course and programming what the sculpture near each hole would do and to what, in addition to the ball in the hole, they will react.  

2. Programmable cutters, pattern makers Children can generate their own patterns algorithmically in pLogo (postscript Logo) or graphically. They can also use ready-made pattern produced by other people or professional designers. The cutter will cut these designs out of fabric, paper, or other novel material for children to sew or glue together (using double-sided tape) to make their own things. The cutter can also have a setting for marking up the material so that children can cut it out themselves. Again, for safety reasons, once the sewing machine is running in the auto mode, it will automatically shuts off if a child gets too close to the moving parts.

9) Either a cardboard box that repairs itself, or a cardboard subscription. Each deivery comes with a new design.

6. Programmable Garden A contained aquarium-type gardening kit that provides children with several different plants and soil and then allows the children to use a computer to program the soil temperature, lighting, and water control for different areas of the aquarium, allowing the kids to find the optimal climate for different vegetables and flowers.

9. Artificial Aquarium: Some things are a whole lot harder to do in air than in water, such as moving things around with 3 degrees of freedom. Self-assembly is tough to model on a large scale without floating the "molecules" in some medium. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to replicate self-assembly on the macro scale? Using primitive shape memory alloy flagella for motility, "puzzle" fit shapes and carefully placed magents, perhaps you could mimic the self-assembly process in an aquarium (or at least make a lot of nifty artificial microorganisms). Or else, you could float some charged, mylar balloon macro-atoms in the atrium...

--Grow your plants You get a traveling container to place your plans. They have different parameters (humidity, light, etc.) you can control according to the plant needs.

- giant artificial microbe in a jar. A-life for kids, preferably slimy as well as instuctional.

--Robotic fish tank With fish, octopus, see horse that you can train to do different things.

- physical sim city

7. intelligent block puzzles. these are the sort of puzzles which break down into 10 or more separate pieces and you have to reassemble them into some kind of solid shape. Problem is they can be very hard to figure out for younger kids, and once you've looked at a solution it's all over. So these pieces would have minimal intelligence, a simple motion detector and a small loudspeaker. If they detected that they were being played with, small hints would be given at periodic intervals to help you solve the puzzle, without giving the whole thing away at once. advanced version: once you've solved it, it somehow reconfigures itself into a different puzzle.

--Electronic Puzzle You get one set of pieces, but you can download several pictures to them. They get assigned in a random way, every time you want to star a new puzzle. Once you are done with one picture, you can upload it to the your computer (print, etc)

SPORTS/GAMES

6. Programmable athletic tools/supplies Consider a soccer ball during a typical game: On average how often is it kicked how hard is it kicked how high does it go how far does it how often do you posses it where does it end up after you have it how much does it get deformed when kicked how often and how many times does it bounce how often is it headed, chested and can you tell them apart ...

Or consider a volleyball in the volleyball game: Aside from questions similar to those above, how would it effect the game, if you could program the ball/court/net to let you know if you are not setting up the ball high often enough let you know when to start jumping for a given set ...

Or in tennis or table tennis: what if the paddle can tell you during or after the game, in striking the ball, what part of the racket/paddle you are using most often from which side of the table/court you are scoring more effectively from a given position in the court do use forehand or backhand more often what is the average speed and spin of the ball what is the average rpm of the ball during a game average height of the ball above the net ...

1. Coaching Baseball and Bat A talking baseball that tells a child how hard he/she hit the ball and gives suggestions of how to swing the bat to improve his/her techinique and form.

Pitching a ball onto wall: Using projector, it draws curves that trace hit points on a wall at everytime kid pitch a ball onto the wall and also, it can lead kids to hit a point on the wall by projecting a target. (cf. Pingpong plus) Several kids can play together at the same time.

Measuring Balls Balls that can tell how far apart they are. If this could be shrunk down to marble size elements, it would make a great measuring tape replacement. Unlike a measuring tape, it wouldn't sag or have a problem with physical obstacles. If you loose one, you could find the other one. Or you could have somebody hide one, and figure out where it is.  

9. Active Bat (Not to be confused with ActiveX): OK, I know this was a joke in a Microsoft-sucks email that went around a while ago, but the time interval between absurd and marketable product is getting shorter every year. An 'active' bat is one that has a compressed air cylinder inside and exhaust ports on the sides, and directs the bat into the ball using real time tracking of the ball. The player supplies the force, the bat supplies the aim. Some might argue that this takes the fun out of baseball, but I think it gives uncoordinated kids the practice and confidence they need to use a real bat. I think it might be a cool training tool too.

4) Ball that keeps score - knows when it goes through a goal, hoop, or other scoring device. Keeps score. Would be difficult to make it call fouls, but that could be the magic.

7. A yo-yo or top to think with Consider a yo-yo that can be programmed to record its (angular) velocity, (angular) acceleration, the tension in the string, .... It would be fun to be able to program it to recognize the various tricks you can do with a yo-yo. The top could give you real-time data about its motion and the fields it is moving through (for example the levetron is a toy that sees a pretty interesting varying magnetic field). If it is covered with LEDs, for example, you can have it generate different patterns depending on the sensor readings.

10. Yo-yo Magic Yo-yo with a built in gyroscope and microchip brain to interpret the forces acting upon it. It outputs musical notes and rhythmic beats according to the way you play with it. It could even react differently to different users if a second sensor measured the pulse or skin galvanic response of the user. If anyone can think of a way to get it to do its own tricks, or make it able to learn/memorize tricks, that would be even better. Free-form checkers - Checker game pieces that flip from red to black (or maybe white to navy blue, or green to purple). You don't use a board to play with these; you just slide them around on top of a table. They change color depending on the colors and positions of their nearby neighbors. If you don't like the "rules" of interaction you can change them, using a desktop computer to write new game patterns for your pieces.

1) "Digital Tragedy / Comedy Masks" -- These masks can be set to express a certain emotion and, when looking through the eyes of the mask, display the emotions of other masks differently depending on which emotional state they are set to. For example, someone who has set their own mask to angry will see another masks set to angry as jealous and see masks set to happy as indifferent. The masks could be used in theater or English classes to teach about different points of view.

6. DRESS UP Use a vision/object recognition system to return relevant video, images, information about the time periods in which the children are pretending to dress up. stargazer t-shirt a gps stargazing assistant t-shirt. the shirt keeps track of date, time and place. no matter where you are you can look at your shirt to find out what constellations to search for at that time in the sky . maybe when touched the allegorical shapes of the constellations can appear around the star configuration (h.a. rey) - reconfigurable dress-up clothes. Going beyond reversible jackets, with these you could switch the arms of different shirts, change them from puffy to tight, change the colour, change the style, using velcro, clever design and use of fasteners, maybe dye that is sensitive to charge so it changes colour when you expose it to current for a short time.

story beads beads that have an image loaded into them via ir. strung together and worn - the images are played out as a story on a tiny lcd amulet. trade 'em with your friends (been talking to kwin about this as a research project for the semester as an adaptation for another set of programmable beads). while latoya is doing her science project she can keep images of her research and pictures/notes about other women scientists in history. empowerment necklace - but better than wonder woman's.

toy-tags a creation id tag for homemade toys - the idea is to give some information about the history of the toy construction. so, materials can be traded and challenge the next player. maybe a small audio file for playback of challenge - "i made a fish from this piece of silk in 20 folds..." (pengkai pan)

holographic marbles edge lit holograms embedded in marbles. used on a circular light board. images are distorted to abstraction in all cases except when the edge of the hologram is perpendicular to the light board - then you get the holographic image.

WallCrawler I would like to have a toy that can walk up walls. I don't know how to do this, but it would be very cool.    

soap bubble stamps color images printed on soap bubbles. as the bubbles get formed the images swirl into abstract colorful patterns. they float away and burst, but when the ink dries it becomes invisible.

7. Temperature sensitive paint A lot of toys have dyes that change color with temperature so you can touch them and make them change color. Kids should be able to paint with this stuff. Particularly their walls, so they can then finger paint the temperature-sensitive regions.

firefly crayons little plastic bugs, light on back, teeny ink jet underneath. two modes - set and variable. set means you choose a color red, yellow, blue, black, white. variable works on proximity. if a variable bug is close to a blue and yellow bug it would turn green. you could always press on the backs of the bugs and draw with ink in the color displayed on the back. maybe they could move autonomously like bugs and draw patterned pictures (a possessed spirographic bug collection)     10. Cookie sculpture Figure out a recipe for dough that you can sculpt into figures that don't lose shape in the oven. Kids can bake their sculptures to harden them and then eat them.

ColorKids1: This can sense colors of everything, so if kids put it on some places or objects , it plays music according to the color. Everything has color, so this allows kids to play with everthing in their environments.

ColorKids2: This toy can track specific color on surfaces. Kids draw a line, it follow the line by color sensor. We can program it to do specific behavior such as " turn around", "go back","turn left", etc when it meets specific color So, kids get to understand the behaviors and relation to the color, they can control the toy's motion by drawing lines with several colors.

ColorKids3: This objects has small screen which show a certain colors. If two kids who have them meet and play with them, colors can be exchanged by IR and it can memorize the other's color by identifing the signal. If the number of playing with each other increase, color become to be similar. What a friendship! ( Or, by shaking it, randomly a color is selected and displayed. And then two of color get to be close smoothly. )

Color Sampler I would like to create a physical version of the Photoshop Eyedroppper that can sample a color on a picture. This pen or eyedropper like device would take a picture of whatever was just in front of it and reduce the whole image to one color. When the eyedropper is returned to its holder next to the computer it send the color information to the drawing program. If you wanted to paint with the color of your couch, you could just go and get that color, instead of guessing on a color wheel.

3. Flexible Art Digital touch-sensitive art tablet. Allows you to include text, upload photos, or create your own artwork on the fly. The tablet is thin enough that you can attach to the front of your notebook, diary, photo album, etc. A magnetically backed version can even be applied to the refrigerator.

2. Art Cap Smaller version of the Flexible Art concept. Would create a hat that could have different logos or images on it every time you wear it. You could set it to rotate between a set number of patterns you program. Or, like some screen savers, set it to random and it will generate colorful swirling patterns of its own. Could include a small speaker to allow sound capabilities as well.

1. Digital FingerPaint: Clear building blocks that contain 3 LEDs inside, such that the LEDs can be "mixed" to generate a full range of colors. The blocks would come with a palette that you can use to mix your LED colors (the palette would have several "pots of LED paint" whose color could be adjusted using a knob). Once a color is mixed and selected, touch the building blocks to "paint" them with light). The palette will also have several texture buttons that can be applied to the blocks for dynamic patterns of colored light. If the blocks could remember their paint "history," this could be played back as a light pattern in the blocks, like a 3-D Simon Says... or else, you could create movement of color and light to mimic the appearance of running water, wind blowing leaves in trees, etc...

10) Fireworks - LCDs make non-burning sparks.

8. Light Art A compact laser light projection system for your bedroom. Be able to create laser light art and put on shows for your family and friends. Alternately, rather than projecting onto physical surfaces, it could project holographic images several inches above itself. When in "autocreate" mode, the projector would react to external sound or music to create light displays. - animate your own drawings. Kids draw on paper on top of a digitizing tablet. The image can then be animated by a computer and kids can add a story to go with it.

TOYS TO SOLVE THE BATTERY PROBLEM

6) electrical wind-up toys (i.e. no more batteries)

4. Kid Power: Powering digital toys is a real problem requiring lots of expensive and irritating batteries. Rechargeable batteries are good, but they currently require parents to deal with them. What if kid power could be used to recharge batteries? Perhaps pogo sticks, Sit and Spin, trampolines or bicycles could be coupled with a cool device that enables kids to generate the power for their toys by recharging batteries in a fun way. Alternately, maybe common household devices could be exploited for their power-generating properties: imagine recharging your batteries by throwing them into a padded bag and running them through a cycle in the dryer to convert the heat and tumbling motion into battery power. Or sticking the (especially-made non-metallic) batteries in the microwave, half in water and half out.

Hand-cranked Toys I like the idea of human-powered toys. It doesn't just have to be a hand-cranked. I have no clear ideas yet, but besides the fact that you never need batteries and you can run the device right out of the box, I think there is a lot to be learned by powering your own devices and seeing how they work.

TOYS INSPIRED BY EXISTING TOYS

4. autonomous R/C planes, boats, submarines, and cars R/C planes are quite hard to fly for a beginner and are therefore quite easy to damage or destroy. These planes can be programmed for automatic take-off, landing, data collection (air velocity, ground velocity, wind velocity, temperature, air pressure, altitude, orientation, acceleration, structural stability and stress, aerial photographs, real-time video feed, etc) while the plane does ordinary or fancy maneuvers, etc. Similar ideas apply to boats and cars. They can all also be flown semi-autonomously or fully controlled by the children as they get more experience.

6) Realistic sounding toy airplanes for toddlers that make appropriate jet noises (using a tilt sensor) -- cruising noises when flying level, and bring in the doppler effect when the nose is tilted down. Also makes crashing noises when you touch it down other than moving forward as the wheels touch.

8. Programmable Slip N' Slide A twist on the old slip n' slide that uses sensors to track the movement of the slider and directly aim streams of water at him or her. Additionally, the slider could alternate the style of the water spraying out, like in parabolic arches or fine mists.

6. Cheshire cat: In tourist shops there are these cheesy little ceramic heads you can buy that when you turn their head they kind of bob back and forth. We could make one of those that slowly turns to face any sound in the room. Or similarly a Cheshire cat that always keeps it's eyes on you. (May actually be kind of freaky, but hey.)

7. Remote Control Tail Gaiters: Remote control cars, once several hundred dollars and requiring elaborate construction now are in the commodity domain of Tyco and others. Each car needs a 'gag' something it does that distinguishes it from other cars like it. We could build 'tail lights' into a popular car, and then make other cars with no remote control, but that simply follow the lights of the car in from. These follower cars should have tail lights themselves, so the cars can be trained together, the more cars you have, the longer the train.

8. A 'real' lightsaber: OK, I know it is a bit late to get tie in merchandise on the store shelves, maybe we can do it for the sequel to the prequel. But I want a lightsaber as an input device to a computer game. You need some way to track the position and orientation of a lightsaber throughout three-space, but imagine a mortal-combat style video game, but with swords, and you use a real sword looking device to play. Handling character movements might be tough, but if you tracked translation of the sword, you might be able to fake it. If cost weren't a big deal you could add tracking to the feet or something to handle advance and retreat kind of movement. At close range, IR is probably viable for sword-computer communication. You could also have some kind of physical feedback in the sword, like a physical jolt when you hit something.

8. This is inspired by a toy my kids really enjoyed. I think it was called "light bright". The same as the old "light bright" except that you can program the arrangement of lights that you have put on the board. You can control their brightness and color and animated the image you produce. You can also program the image/animation to respond to music or other sensors.

1) Tagged baseball cards - Tags index cards into a giant database of constantly updated statistics. Cards can retrieve simple statistics, or current news stories. Combinations can bring up past head-to-head match ups or teams that two players have played together on.

2) Not-dumb water rocket - The good old pump-em-up water rocket with internal ballast that it can adjust to ensure that the projectile returns in a relatively tight proximity to where it was launched from. That way, it wouldn't end up on the neighbor's roof. Could also be outfitted with a camera, altimeter, or other sensors to record the flight.

3) Microsoft Barney Plays Devil's Advocate - Some kind of TV watch-along partner to keep kids interested in current events. Needs a television show produced in conjunction. Can help point out the simple conflicts between the two (or more) sides to complex issues. Warning: Many parents may just plain hate this toy.

Remote Control by motion: One is a toy like a remote controlled car. The other is a motion sender other than a controller. By grasping and moving it in a space, kid can control the action of remote car or toy.

6. Smart Hot Wheels XV Racer Set A double width Hot Wheels track that¹s wired to keep tabs on up to 6 specially created XV cars at the same time. You get to program the names of your cars¹ drivers. The grandstand speaker then will announce the race play by play as it progresses. The cars themselves make wild sounds when they do loop tricks, and wipe out sounds when if they fly off the track.

5. Spy Kit Comprehensive spy set up: super sensitive listening device with digital recording chip, 2-way radio watches, fingerprint recognition palette that can be used to build personal electronic locks, and flywheel add-on to bicycles for quick burst getaways.

4. Rocket Ride Miniature on-board live video system lets you go along for the ride in a toy rocket. Other instruments measure the g-force, velocity, and wind speed. All these are beamed by radio back to the ground station, where kids can track the telemetry to improve on later flights.

--Real Super Heroes, and other dolls They will actually perform as they do in cartoons or movies. You can select demo or control mode. I got this one from my brother, who wants to have spider-man that can claim walls or super-man that flies.

LED Lightbrite An array of three-color LEDs about the size of a classic Lightbrite. The LED are mounted on small buttons, which when pressed give the LEDs one of four states, on red, green, white, or off. When the LED Lightbrite is first turned on, all the LEDs are off. You can then press your hand on the device and leave your print in red. You can then put your other hand on it and also leave its print in red, but the places that overlap with your other hand will be green. You can also click on each LED individually to adjust the image.

Lightbright meets bread board A lightbright toy that enables you to wire logic in addition to creating static patterns. you could store a series of states, create dynamic patterns, "program" interactions among lights, explore emergent patterns, and so on.

Really magic 8 ball listens to your questions and reconfigures meaningful answers

10. Digital Circus: This is a broader concept, inspired by sculptor / artist Alexander Calder. I think it would be a great demo to build a digital and mechanical circus using current technology. For example, the circus could contain: a crowd that would blink in patterns of light as it applauded events in different parts of the ring; a piezo electric flea circus (Rich Fletcher); tag-carrying clowns that could recognize each other and respond appropriately; a (very thin) ballerina that would spin on a circular electrostatic motor; a lion with animated LCD eyes that would roar loader and scowl as you got near it; an announcer / ring leader that could recognize tags and give appropriate, real-time information from the internet; various computer-animated projections; and others. The entire circus could be built using current manufacturing materials and methods, such as the laser cutter, 3-D printer, smart materials, etc...     Digital Labyrinth Based on the classic game of Labyrinth, I would like to propose a small hand-held digital Labyrinth. I'm imagining a 2x3 inch high resolution LCD screen with a graphical labyrinth and ball. Using accelerometers, one can measure the tilt on the screen and have the virtual ball respond to real tilt. It would have an on/off button, a difficulty select button, and a stop/reset button. (Partially based on Golan Levin's work)

7) millimeter-size remote-controlled vehicles

5) Emergency parachute system for remote control airplanes. This would actually be quite useful while learning to fly RC planes. A spring loaded mechanism mounted on the empenage (tail section) that opens the parachute with a button press on the remote could save many an airplane from destruction. (I remember my first plane's disastrous maiden voyage after I had spent many hours building it...) :-(

TOYS THAT DEFY CATEGORIZATION

1) toys that non-rich people can afford

Shoes-Alive - As Neil is fond of pointing out, shoes have room for electronics and built-in kinetic power. With this in mind, and a little creative use of electro-luminiscent and similar materials, we should be able to make really nifty light-up shoes. And not just shoes that blink an LED or two, but shoes that light up differently for every person, every day. And how about athletic shoes that respond to motion, artsy shoes that can reflect the aesthetics of the wearer, and shoes for high-school sweethearts that glow sympathetically when their mates' are nearby.

2. Mood Braces Well this isn't exactly a toy, but when I had braces, the cool thing was to get different colored rubber bands around the brackets and to make your mouth as colorful as possible. Mood braces could make the brackets turn different colors, depending upon your stress level. Added bonus because when the orthodontist tightens your wires too much, the braces turn red. Instant feedback.  

10. A mail droid. I always loved those little robots that looked like letter carriers running around the Death Star in Star Wars. I am not sure what the status is, but I know someone at the lab is trying to do in building lojack, which could do position sensing within a couple of milimeters. It would be fun to build an actual mail droid that just wandered around the building, visiting various rooms. It could either have some way to call the elevator or just wait for it and take a ride. It wouldn't necessarily have to deliver real mail, it could just have 'personality.' Maybe you could tell it: Go get me a soda from the soda machine.

7. PolyWalk: Wouldn't it be cool to have a square or dodecahedron that would "walk" across a table, and change it's direction if it hit an impediment? Using either shape memory alloy or an off-centered weight, I'd like to build a walking polyhedra. A shape memory alloy sea urchin (that crawled along on it's SMA spikes) would also be nice.    

1. MUSICAL PUZZLE Musical blocks that you put together to compose a song. Each block contains a musical phrase and a landscape representing the pitch contour and length of the notes. As you put the blocks together they each play their respective musical phrases. The object is to put the puzzle together in the correct order, or to create your own music with the existing pieces.

2. MUSICAL N-PUZZLE Each square contains a musical phrase or representation of a phrase, and as you snap the squares together they play. In some ways, it's the same as the musical puzzle except that it's a pocket sized version.

3. MUSCIAL COLORING/DRAWING PENS Pens play sounds depending on what you draw. For example, the harder you press the louder the sound gets. Or if you draw in an upwards motion, the pitch increases, etc. Different colored pens could make different kinds of sounds.

1. Musical glowsticks Glowsticks are a lot of fun to wave around in the dark to make cool trails (as many electronic music fans can attest). It would be really cool if moving the glowsticks created sound in addition to responding to it. This could work via piesoelectric sensors sending radio signals to a sound synthesizer or computer. It could also work by making them whistle or resonate in a more analog fashion.  

4. Musical beads Each bead plays a single note. When connected in a string they play a melody which is looped when the beads form a necklace or bracelet. The beads could also be motion sensitive so that aspects of the sound (tone, resonance, distortion) alter with movement so dancing could create Roland-303-like "acid line" effects.

3. musical skipping rope. when i was a kid there were a lot of skipping games that used to be played during school breaks. This would be a standard skipping rope that had a small loudspeaker and a recording of the music and perhaps lyrics with and without the rules as alternatives to be selected. There were/are a lot of these games, and as i recall each school had its own local knowledge bank, which the skipping rope could increase. Possibly also with the ability to record.

10. instrument trainer/accompaniest. follows in the ground breaking steps of "silento brasso" (a japanese mute for brass instruments which considerably quietens the sound, but recreates the actual sound of the instrument through a pair of headphones for the player). This would be an intelligent music trainer and also provide accompanying instruments to simulate playing in a group. You can buy cdroms that sort of provide this for musical instruments, but this would have intelligence and would provide training exercises and and an accompaniest as you play. Version 10.3 would detect egregious mistakes and suggest exercises to resolve them. musical markers each color has a different sound that plays while you draw. notes could vary in some way depending on gesture. (does anyone remember those scented markers of the 70's - fun!)

8. Musical Jungle Gym Kids build complex structures with bars and squares that play music when touched. Kids specify the musical relationships between the pieces. They can then run around on them to make music or set their cats free on them.

Music Sword : Two swords are connected to computer. if a certain part of one sword and a part of the other sword collide or meet, it trigger a specific sound on scale such as "do", "re". So, two kids can collaborate to play a music intentionally.

Crazy Sound Tube - A bendable, pullable, shakeable, squeezable tube that plugs into stereo headphones and responds to all of the above by producing a private music and sound effects show. Or plug a bunch of them (maybe different "instruments") into a multiplexer and a stereo with speakers for a concert. And for the adventurous Constructionist, perhaps you could customize or add to the repertoir of your Crazy Tube by writing new sounds and response patterns in Logo. Audio Spotlight Jr. - A little megaphone that "throws" your voice across the room. Appeals to the desire in all of us to play ventriloquist. - sound splotlight for secret messages at a distance, like Star Trek   10. Magnetic Music Kind of like magnetic poetry but you can put musical notes together on the refrigerator to compose music and play it back while you are cooking dinner. Maybe the magnetic poetry can be modified so that it can interact with the music and become lyrics for songs.

2. You Are The Star: Karaoke+. The 'base' unit would be a microphone and a speaker unit you would place on the floor of your living room, amplifying your voice, but the 'hook' is that you could get additional, disconnected units that modified or augmented the behavior of the system: Additional speakers, perhaps that do reverb or some kind of percussion overlay. A colored light that pans and swivels to track you around your living room. A networked node that brought in additional content from the internet or connected you to others singing the same song throughout the world for ensemble numbers.

5. Musical Painting A special canvas with a camera that interprets the different colors applied, type of brush with which the color is applied, and speed with which the paint is applied and translates it into musical tones, allowing the painter to compose a musical score that reflects the mood and tone of the painting.  

1) Virtual musicians that allow kids to create a personalized character that they can interact with. Kids choose an instrument they want their character to play, what type of band they want to be in, and define their musical style and "look". Each instrument could have built in riffs that sound "cool", but as a kid becomes better at controlling a character, they would have more musical control and flexibility.

2) Audio building blocks that allow kids to put together chains of signal processing. The actual DSP could be done on a pentium, with the blocks relaying their arrangement back to the computer. Blocks could be connected either with wires or by touching each other, and each box would have its own purpose, ie a delay box, a flange box, a resonant filter, etc. Input to the chain could be from a microphone or CD player, etc.

7) Musical hula hoops that allow you to control the rhythm or some other aspect of the music that they generate. Would use accelerometers or buttons on the inside of the hoop to sense motion. Also, a walkman with accelerometers could track the speed at which you walk and adjust the tempo of the music to match.

8) Scanner music -- take a handheld scanner and turn it into a musical instrument by using the signals generated by the optics. Could be done either as software on a desktop computer, or by adding a synth and a speaker to the scanner make it portable.

9) (I think Saul Griffith is already working on this...) Musical kites that use wind power to drive string(s) into vibration. Kite handle(s) would also be remote controls for things like tension of the strings (to change pitch), etc -- can be done with muscle wire.

9. Music in Motion Motion sensors attached to clothing (shirt, shorts, and gloves) each cue different programmable sounds. Move to make sounds. Move rhythmically to make music. Skin galvanic response sensor in one of the gloves would affect real-time changes the mood or tone of the composition based on its measurements.

10) Audio rangefinder that varies some musical parameter based on its distance from whatever you point it at. if you aim it at something far away, and scan across the room to something closer, the shape of the room (and obstacles) would vary the music it produces. - tangible music composing

--Composition kit Different object will represent the different components in a music piece (duration, peach, and volume...). The idea is to have the kids learn about these different elements and by playing can compose and create their own melodies (my group proposed a similar idea in Mitchel's class last semester).

--Personal Music Box You can download the music you like and program the box to play it according to different parameters... can be environmental, emotional, etc.

9. Interactive Frisbee and Dog Collar A frisbee that senses how close a dog is to catching the frisbee from the collar around the dog's neck. As the dog gets closer to the frisbee, the frisbee flashes its lights quickly and plays music to a crescendo when the dog finally catches it.