Hello Barbie: Hang on, this Wi-Fi doll records your child’s voice? • The Register
▻http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/02/19/hello_barbie/?mt=1424555018639
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.
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Barbie has been around about for 59 years now, and the high-tech version is being pushed out fast as Mattel seeks to halt falling sales. It’s not the only company doing so: IBM is getting in on the game.
Big Blue is working with Elemental Path to bring its IBM’s Watson machine-learning software to a range of kid’s toys. Splashing out $99 on Kickstarter will get you a cuddly green dinosaur that can communicate with Watson’s voice-recognition service wirelessly.
