Ever since the Internet took off in popularity, "Networking" has become a household word. There has been talk of wiring houses and having fridges that are on the Internet. However, toys have been largely left out of the loop. This is where the A-team comes in. After creating a few toys, such as the Photo-Sketch, Flower Power, and Radio Rubik Cubes, we realized there was a huge potential for toy interaction if only all toys could communicate.
After outfitting our toys with infrared (IR) receivers and IR LED's, we were ready to make them talk. Our first task was to create a standard language for all the toys to speak. We call this language Babel. Presently Babel only consists of sending individual letters (unique identifiers for each toy) which can indicate to the other toy what response is desired. For example, one face of a cube can be programmed to change its color every time it sees the flower whose identifier is "R." Though presently Babel is very simple, this summer we will expand Babel so that packets of data are exchanged every time a toy meets another toy. Through these "handshakes" childrens' toys could exchange even more information, perhaps information on the toy preferences the child has.
What advantage does a networked toy have over a regular toy? Simple; toys can actually respond to interactions with other toys. For example, when G.I. Joe meets Barbie, rather than saying "Get the bad guys!" he could say "Are you free Friday?" When we began programming these interactions among our toys, we realized that the most enjoyable part wasn't the interaction, but being able to program the interactions. As a result, we decided to allow children to control and reprogram these interactions, preferably away from the computer.
Our latest research involves hacking an existing toy, called "Ooglies." These toys are characters with electronic components in them, but we don't feel they are interactive enough, or adaptable. Recently we've created our own circuit boards and outfitted Ooglies with brand-new electronics. Our plan is to enable each Ooglie to be a kind of storage place for a character; children will be able to give unique characteristics to each Ooglie (using a palm pilot) and then create a game to play using the Ooglies. Again, our Ooglies will have IR and RF networking.
Adam Smith's page has more
information on our research.. If you have any questions, feel free to email
him.
We also have some links (along with other useful information)
that may be helpful to you. You may also want to look at our "Cool
Parts" page.
The A-team consists of Adam Smith, Elina Kamenetskaya, Alex Jacobs, Roshan Baliga, and sometimes Danielle Schumaker.
(c) 2000 MIT Medialab