Interactive Toy Analysis

 

To understand what an interactive toy is you must first understand what interactive means. What does it mean to be interactive? To interact, one thing must act on another and there must be a return action as defined in class. Interaction takes place between humans, a human to video game, etc. Most daily activities require some form of Interaction. Also you must be able to recognize an interactive toy from a non-interactive toy. An interactive toy will respond to a direct or indirect action you make on it. A non-interactive toy only does what you make it, there is no interactivity between the user and the toy.

In today's time alot more toys have been made to be interactive than what they used to be. That is because of the advancement in technology has allowed for further development in toys for today's young generation. Many toys today can even recognize human actions and react to these actions. Large companies such as Sony and Honda are both deeply involved in the production of simulating Human actions with a robot. The robot they have created understands multiple languages, can do many actions, and actually has a memory. This robot can run, jump, throw a ball, also recognize where edges of a table are so it does not run off the ledge. This robot also has Artificial Intelligence and can learn things.

There are many misconceptions of what an Interactive Toy is. For example action figures are not an Interactive Toys by our definition because it does not return an action to the user. These are regular toys that do nothing unless the user performs an action on them. A toy can be defined as a tool of some sort that what designed to be played with. An interactive toy was not only meant to be played with but it also acts with the user that provides interactivity between the toy and the user. By visiting stores such as Kay-Bee Toys or Best Buy it is very possible to come across an interactive toy. Not too many years ago one of the most popular interactive toys hit the shelves. This toy was Tickle Me Elmo. It could almost be said every child had one of these. Tickle Elmo would laugh and giggle when the user tickled him or squeezed him.

More recently you have the robot dog/cat which share very similar characteristics to real dogs/cats. For example the robotic dog comes when its name is called, they bark to show that they want something. This addition of reality to inanimate objects is the way of the future with interactive toys. Action figures are slowly but surely fading out with the times. Interactive Toys of today allow for limitless ideas in the future which can be used to create future Interactive Toys for the next generations to play with.