I have always had a fascination with trying to understand how the things around me work. It just so happens that after having a child, most of the thing around me are toys. Large toys, small toy, blinking lights, sounds, singing, haptics, interactivity, it is all pretty darn amazing when you sit back and really look at how much technology my little one year old daughter navigates and interacts with during play. Many time when we think of children and technology we automatically think of desktop computers and video game consoles. Although all of these are examples of technology the only interaction my daughter has with them is me telling her, “don’t touch”, and handing her a toy to distract her attention.
I decided to take a trip to my daughter’s toy collection to examine some of the sensing capabilities that her electronic toys offer. I will specifically focus on the toys input capabilities:
(At the end of the post there is a video of me trying to figure out how the LeapFrog Tag Jr works. Let me know your thoughts.)
Fisher-Price Elmo Live Encore
This is by far one my daughters favorite toys. The toy is modeled after Elmo, a Sesame Street character, which most children a quickly drawn to by his bright red color, large eyes, and youthfully fun voice.
Inputs
- Push Buttons: Typically buttons on toys are visually obvious, however Fisher Price decided to create an exploratory interaction by spreading out four button throughout the plush doll. Three of the buttons are hidden under the fabric, on the toe, chest, and back, and the final button switch is closed by squeezing his nose.
- Tilt Sensor: One of the nice additions that the creators added to the toy was integration of a Tilt Sensor. When Elmo falls on his side, he politely ask for help to stand backup, which is sometime accompanied with a joke.
LeapFrog Learn & Groove™ Musical Table
We originally got this toy when our daughter was showing signs of wanting to stand on her own. The toy itself is stuffed with several auditory and visual feedback that really grabs her attention.
Inputs
- Push Buttons: Typically buttons on toys are visually obvious, however Fisher Price decided to create an exploratory interaction by spreading out four button throughout the plush doll. Three of the buttons are hidden under the fabric, on the toe, chest, and back, and the final button switch is closed by squeezing his nose.
- Toggling Buttons: From watching my daughter play with this section of the table, I noticed that the design decision was probably based around learning not only shapes, but also cause and effect. When she presses one, the previously pressed button switch pops up to an open state.
- Flipping : This might be one of my daughter favorite interactions. It may be partly due to the fact that we read a lot of books to her, or it might just be an intrinsic curiosity that makes her want to flip things over. Feedback is dispatched when the child flips the pages of the book on the center of the toy, and also when they open the small compartment on one of the sides. I would imagine that the switch is hidden on the hinge of the book. Each page has individual hinges that are associate with it. Once the page is flipped and crosses the angular threshold an embedded audio file is dispatched, along with some dancing LEDs.
- Slider: The slider, is a “slider” in the physical interaction sense of the word. However the slider does not send an analog signal, or at least is doesn’t technically need too. I believe that the reason for the design decision was mainly an educational one to create opportunity to exercise multiple sensory motor functions (sliding, twisting, pushing, flipping, etc.)
LeapFrog My Pal Violet
This product is actually one of my favorites. In the exterior it seems like a pretty straight forward digitally enhanced plush toy, but it add another layer of interaction for the parent, which evolves connecting the toy to the computer via USB and downloading audio files onto the toy. There is also some slight visual feedback from the LED that is housed in the plastic bone around the toy’s neck.
Inputs
Push Buttons: There are 4 normally open push buttons, each living on one of the plush dog’s paws. All the buttons, have iconic representations of the type of audio that it will dispatch once the switch is closed: Music, Action, Lullaby , and Power Off.
Parental Interaction
Keyboard/Mouse: The toy comes with a desktop application that syncs with the toy via USB. The parent could then select which audio files to have the available to the toy. They are also able to personalizing some the interaction, by selecting from a list of names.
LeapFrog Spin and Sing Alphabet Zoo
This was probably the first toy that my daughter mastered at a couple months old. She almost looked like a boxer spinning the all the letters round and round, and enjoy the audio that is dispatched on the toys active state. Once the action stops, and the spinning section comes to a stop, the audio dispatches which animal or letter is in between the arrows, sort of like the large wheel from Wheel of fortune.
Inputs
Without gutting this toy (my wife would kill me) I’m not too sure how they made this work, however my best guess is:
Metal roller/ball bearing & Metal Plate contact: each of the 25 selections have individual plates that are connected to some sort of Shift register or multiplexer. As the the spinning action occurs the fixed conductive roller stays in contact with each of the plates that passes by. Once an individual contact is closed for about a second, the spin cycle is assumed to have finished, and the appropriate audio file is dispatched. Not sure if this is accurate since this may add friction. I can’t be sure unless i open it up.
Here is a video of my daughter playing with this toy:
LeapFrog Learn & Groove Counting Maracas
These are bionic baby rattles/maraca that sense when they are being shaken. Once they are shaken an array of lights and melodies start to play. These are lots of fun, and has an added affordance of making adults act like complete fools.
Input
- Slide Switch: This is just a simple multi state switch to adjust various mode settings
- Accelerometer or Tilt Switch: Not sure exactly how they are sensing movement, but typically you would use either a tilt switch, or accelerometer. I would put money on the tilt switch mainly for cost, and being that the accelerometer may be overkill.
Fisher-Price Go Baby Go! Crawl-Along Musical Ball
We bought this toy when the baby was in the brink of starting of crawling. The interaction involves rolling the ball and watch the illusion of the monkey keeping it’s balance, while letting out some humorous squeals.
Input
The only input for this toy is sensing that the ball is in movement. Since the ball roll only in one direction, I would imagine a spinning tilt switch is all that was needed to sense when the ball was in motion.
LeapFrog Tag Junior Book Pal – Purple
One of my friends bought this toy for my daughter, which is a bit advanced for her, however extremely impressive. This toy serves a scaffold for children that are learning to read. By simply touching the pen on the area of the word, it dispatches an audio files that speaks the word that they child selected.
Input
It is totally beyond me how this technology works, but I will post up a video of me trying to guess. No idea if will actually be right, and unfortunately I need to wait till my daughter could read before I could take it apart, so a guess will do for now.
My guess on how the LeapFrog Tag Junior works:
Update: So it turns out I was correct…woohoo! I did a few searches and ran into the LeapFrog FlyPaper Pen. I didn’t event know LeapFrog made this. Anyhow, I downloaded the manual and this is what it says under “How it works”. (would have been a lot easier if they added that section in the Tag manual).
The FLY Fusion Pentop Computer has a built-in camera next to the writing tip. When you write, the camera sees tiny dots on the FLY™ Paper, which are printed with reflective ink in a very subtle pattern. The camera takes a series of fast snapshots of the dots, reads the pattern, and finds the action assigned to those dots.
I think it is safe to assume that they leveraged the same technology.
I also found another guy who made a video about the same exact topic, and had the same answer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6yKZ1wjUgg
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