Watson-Powered Toy Uses IBM Supercomputer to Develop Relationship with Your Kid

We’ve come a long way from Barbie. If you’re looking for an interactive toy that can talk with your kid, tell knock-knock jokes, and help them learn by getting to know their specific needs...
Watson-Powered Toy Uses IBM Supercomputer to Develop Relationship with Your Kid
Written by Josh Wolford
  • We’ve come a long way from Barbie.

    If you’re looking for an interactive toy that can talk with your kid, tell knock-knock jokes, and help them learn by getting to know their specific needs – there’s a Kickstarter campaign for you. It’s called CogniToys, and it’s a super-smart toy dinosaur with its own personality.

    “Each toy will get to know the child and grow with him/her, interacting directly with them to create an experience around each child’s personal interests. The toy will explore favorite colors, favorite toys, interests and use these to customize engagement. Even better, the toy has a personality of its own that changes over time,” says its makers, Elemental Path.

    The CogniToys dino will let kids “ask thousands of questions and receive age-appropriate answers, give commands to the toy allowing the child to discover hidden talents, and hear a number of stories and even create their own stories.”

    So, how does it do this? With the help of IBM’s supercomputer, Watson. You may remember it as the one kicking all the ass on Jeopardy a while back.

    Elemental Path recently won the grand prize in IBM’s Watson Mobile App Developer Challenge, which granted the company access to the supercomputer and all its knowledge. The company quickly moved into the pre-production/prototype phase, and are now fielding donations via Kickstarter to help get the toy’s production into full swing.

    And they’re doing pretty well. In fewer than three days, the project has already doubled its $50,000 goal and is approaching 1,000 individual backers.

    You can back the Kickstarter right now and a $99 pledge gets you a CogniToy Dino. Elemental Path says it’s going to make additional colors of its product with the extra money it receives. Although, with the current rate of pledges holding, the company is going to have to make up some new stretch goals.

    Image via CogniToys, Kickstarter

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