A Highly intellegent toy?
 

Cindy Smart, The smartest doll in the world. Should it be on sell or not? What do you think? it's kinda scary but interesting..and..I dunno.

Edit: the link's not working but here:

A Chatty Doll of a Different Kind

By REBECCA FAIRLEY RANEY


OS ANGELES -- In a room the size of a small classroom, under the gaze of Tweety Bird and Tekno the robotic puppy, Bob Del Principe engages his newest creation. The floor is littered with stuffed animals, and the walls are covered with role-play kits complete with swords, whistles and walkie-talkies.


But Mr. Del Principe's attention is fixed on a doll. She sits on the conference table in a denim jumper, with white-blond hair tied in a ribbon. The company that makes her, Manley Toy Quest, has named her Cindy Smart. She can hear. She can talk.

But above all, Cindy is the first doll that can see — a feat that Mr. Del Principe, a toy maker, describes as the holy grail of his craft.

He sits down at the table and opens the conversation.

"Cindy?" he says.

In a little peeping voice, she answers, "I'm here."

"Do you want to play school?" he asks.

"Yes!" she says.

He places a card with the word "dog" on the bulletin board in front of her.

"Can you read the word?" he asks.

"D-O-G," she says. "Dog."

"Very good," Mr. Del Principe says.

"That's because I have the best teacher in the world," she replies.

As the conversation continues, it is somewhat reassuring that Cindy is tethered to a circuit board. In fact, even with the circuit board in sight, talking about Cindy while she chatters away in the background is like talking about a small child while the child is present. Soon, the contents of the circuit board will be placed on a microchip, and Cindy will be free to read, talk, tell time and solve math problems without any visible sign of her electronics.

Adults who observe interactions with the doll often describe the experience as spooky.

"It's scary to people," said Tara Cortner, associate marketing manager for Manley Toy Quest. "They wonder what's going to happen with toys."

The company plans to start selling the doll in September for $99 on the Home Shopping Network, with a limited production of fewer than 10,000 dolls this year. For that price, buyers will receive the doll, a chair, a desk, a bulletin board and a CD that contains 33 lessons.

The doll's "vision" and her real-time conversation are made possible by improvements in voice recognition technology, a touch of artificial intelligence and a 16-bit microprocessor that the company created over the last year. The new chip processes information much faster than the 4-bit processors typically used in electronic toys. It stores a database of images, including words, letters, numbers, shapes, colors and the positions of hands on a clock.

A tiny camera hidden by a bee-shaped brooch on Cindy's jumper captures images from the bulletin board and matches them to those stored in the database. The doll is stocked with 700 words and can recognize 77 phrases. Cindy is programmed to pretend that she does not know some very simple words, like "cat," so that a child can teach them to her.

Manley Toy Quest, which is based in Hong Kong, has been making toys for 30 years. Its products include robotic pets, electronic hand-held games and stuffed animals that are sold at theme parks. A privately held company, it has about $300 million in sales a year.

The company's new doll has created a lot of excitement in the toy industry, said Jim Silver, publisher of The Toy Book, a trade magazine that covers the toy industry.

"It's never been done before," Mr. Silver said. "This is something that's entirely original."

Mr. Silver said that demand for technology in toys was growing. The challenge for Cindy Smart, he said, will be whether the market will support a doll in this price range.

"In the past, we have seen $70 dolls sell very well," he said. "This is a $100 doll. We're going into new territory with this one. But this is not your typical doll."

Mr. Del Principe, who is Manley Toy Quest's vice president for research and development, said that Cindy Smart could be a pacesetter, much like Chatty Cathy, the talking doll introduced by Mattel more than 40 years ago.

"Every doll after that had to talk," he said, adding that Cindy Smart could have the same effect. "In five or 10 years, toys will routinely have this technology."

By next year, he said, Cindy will be able to read Japanese, a notable addition to her current library of basic words in French, Spanish, German and Italian. And as processing power increases over time, Mr. Del Principe said, he anticipates creating dolls that can read sentences and recognize faces.

But for now, the toy maker delights in simple conversation.

"Cindy?" he says.

"I'm here," she answers.

"I love you," he says.

"I love you!" she replies.

that is somewhat scary...:eek: i just dont know why people would do that....i mean its a toy for crying out loud but its still kinda scary...it just goes to show how strong technology is today that they can create such a thing...sometimes i wonder if its good for us:|

I know! It does sound scary. Imagine it, on the dresser during bed time at night and it shouts out "I love you....good night!" and the kid runs through the door, scared to death! LOL :D

Yeah, some psychologist thinks that the doll should not be released.

Edit: I can post a picture of the doll. Also, the doll looks scary and the smile is creepy, like it's planning evil to take over the world by being the smartest doll in the universe and educating dolls all over the Earth to destroy man kind! Mwahahahahaha! The attack of the dolls! Okay..I'm over-exaggerating abit! :D

yeah that is scary..i would run out of the room was it me:|
i agree with the physcologist on this one

Also, it was on the news today saying that it can cause emotional problems, and kids are not actually learning because just incase you don't get something like a math problem, it really can't explain in detail how to do the work and find the answer to that math problem.

i see:fuzzle: woah that is creepy.....can you post the pic.....it reminds my of cucky from childs play its all:fuzsmile: then it goes to:fuzmad: . perhaps the doll is not safe emotionally for childrent to play with...when they find out its a robotic doll....some might get all scared and emotionall.....creepy thought:fuzblink:

I mean, the doll reminds me of Chucky the doll in the movieChild's Play Incredibly scary. I can get more information on what they think about the doll.

Scary doll!

Sorry, pic I thought was too big so I edited it. :)

Holy s*** that is scary...can you imagine that thing turning evil like chucky..:eek: its wrong i say juts to creepy and unatural what happen to tea parties:fuzconf:

I know, what happen to barbies? We already have alot of creepy talking dolls but this one is different. It has a microchip in that bug on it's overalls!

Child: 2+2=5

Doll: Wrong, Johnny!

Child: hh-hhow d-did you know my name?

Doll: I am..THE EVIL POSSESSED DOLL! MWAHAHAHAAHHA! I have a mind of my own, actually, some chip in my overalls.

:lol: heehee....i can just imagine that...people should go back to Barbies and tea parties.....forget this doll Cindy its evil and unatural

Reminds me more of 'Toy Soldiers' what is it with all these Dolls though? They sposed to be cute and instead look like some crack cocaine addicted blonde...

:lol: so true Jacob...and thats right it is like toy soldiers:fuzconf:

Now that doll is very scary. I don't like it. That doll will probably malfuntion and catch on fire and kill the people in that house and the company will get sued. What gets me though is why kids would like that freaky doll.

This isn't scary, it kicks ass! Think about it: In a few years no American will ever die fighting for his country, robots will do the person's job. In about 25 to 30 years or so I predict America will have a wacked up and tricked out army of G I joe dolls with hyper advanced weapons packing live rounds!
Also, these dolls could be the ultimate spy tools. Remember how furbys were banned from the FBI because they could remember convos and say parts of them back? Well, imagine a tiny apparatus that scans documents, taps phone lines, runs an electronic dragnet on the internet, and recors conversations and spoken words then spits it all back to you in your native language!
Actually that is pretty scary: the entire world could be slaves to super Furbys. Now, if these mofos could learn, we would all be screwed.

Anyone seen the movie A.I. ? *spoilers* That is a great movie and if you ended it before the aliens some parts are disturbingly possible. This reminded me of that movie. More particularly the bear that followed the kid around.

Dolls
 

What the F*** is that?! Revitalation of Chuckies bride?:fuzmad:

That doll looks evil.
I'm expecting lots of parents taking it back because it doesn't understand their children. I.e. because the child has an accent the toy wasn't calibrated to or because they have a speech problem.
I'm not sure a toy with severely limited capabilities will be fun for very long. What can you do with it after it's said all its seventy-seven phrases? With a normal doll you can take it to tea-parties and push it around in a pram but if the doll keeps saying 'I love you' and 'what's a cat?' you're going to get bored with it and play with a normal doll that just shuts the hell up lets you play with it. It's basically taking the control of play away from the child and making them watch. If the doll really learned with a neural net and all that, maybe you could teach them things and discuss what colour you like. With only 700 words and 77 phrases, the kid's going to say words that the doll doesn't know and this'll be frustrating but with normal dolls, the kid can do what they want.
Conclusion: The doll sounds like a cross between a poorly designed toy and a simplistic AI programme.

Wow, Stat, you must of been those tough kids. The type of kids who never needed a night light.

I mean, it's scary because it's unnatural and..it's a doll!

Kid: I love you CIndy

Cindy: Hi, I really hate you and you are a stupid kid

Kid: *laughs*

Cindy: NO! I really don't like you and I want to ruin your life!

Kid: Mommy! Mommy! The doll is trying to kill me!

Basically, this doll could malfunction and give kids nightmares. Also, I've seen the movie AI, *sob* it was a sad movie!

Kinda like Simpsons with the Krusty doll how it is set on bad. That was a good episode.

Hay I wonder if that dolls 77 phrases includes swear words like **** off.

Kid: Hello, Cindy!

Cindy: **** off you stupid bitch!

Heh.

*giggles* That episode was hilarious! I wonder also if the 77 phrases would include swear words. Then the parents definitely won't buy it!! Maybe not because after all it is a kids doll.

* Sigh * Steven Speilberg at his worst. But I loved the little bear dude!

I loved that Bear.

It was sad at the end though *sob* especially *sob* when he saw his mother for the very last time!:crying:

When I read the first bit I almost thought it was a freaking story! And just think,if this thing appeared round 30 years ago, they'd have made a science fiction movie about it! O_o
But it's pretty amazing, the potentiel this technology has.
For good or otherwise, is debatable though.

Yeah, at first I thought is was interesting and just fake. Until I saw it on television then my views on it changed.

Is a little bit of AI really so incredible to you two? It's hardly like this thing is unprecidented...

I just fear for the kids...

I told my little 6 year old sister about it and she said that she didn't like the idea...she asked whether I was joking first. O_o

I think they should ask more children.

AHHHHHHH!!!It's a talking doll!!!!THE WORLD WILL BE TAKEN OVER BY EVIL TALKING TOYS!!!!!!!!RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!AGHHHH!!!When I just looked at it, I screamed