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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHello Barbie: Hang on, this Wi-Fi doll records your child's voice?
Vid Toymaker Mattel has unveiled a high-tech Barbie that will listen to your child, record its words, send them over the internet for processing, and talk back to your kid. It will email you, as a parent, highlights of your youngster's conversations with the toy.
If Samsung's spying smart TVs creeped you out, this doll may be setting off alarm bells too so we drilled into what's going on.
The Hello Barbie doll is developed by San Francisco startup ToyTalk, which says it has more than $31m in funding from Greylock Partners, Charles River Ventures, Khosla Ventures, True Ventures and First Round Capital, and others.
Its Wi-Fi-connected Barbie toy has a microphone, a speaker, a small embedded computer with a battery that lasts about an hour, and Wi-Fi hardware. When you press a button on her belt buckle, Barbie wakes up, asks a question, and turns on its microphone while the switch is held down.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/19/hello_barbie/
gordianot
(15,245 posts)FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)The doll sounds like a cheap iPhone Siri though.
pnwmom
(108,994 posts)A good reason not to use it then.
Children can't give consent. They shouldn't be using these phones.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)However, the tech doesn't bother me.
Kids should be able to use their own brains for entertainment.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)This goes far beyond Siri.
pnwmom
(108,994 posts)What will the cloud do then?
I bet it would do nothing because that could cut into their sales.