Barbie already has a general sense of controversy around her; you know, because of her shape, her career choices, her existence as a toy. Well, now she has the ability to listen to her playmate. And respond back. And remember everything. Totally not creepy at all.
About one year ago, we did a piece about Mattel’s “Hello Barbie.” With a voice recognition program and WiFi, Hello Barbie was supposed to fulfill every kid’s dream of having a conversation with their doll. Now, at the recent Toy Fair, it’s made an official appearance – and parents didn’t like it.
Hello Barbie is the classic doll, but her “brains” let her listen to a statement or question. Over time, she learns what you like and begins to respond according to the information she gathered about you. The technology, developed by a company called ToyTalk, is like iPhone’s Siri. She’ll remember where you are and what you like (or don’t like).
Some people think that this is an invasion of privacy; groups like the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood are among the loudest voices against the toy, claiming that the toys can’t and shouldn’t be a replacement for real life interaction. Either way, one does wonder, where does the information go and what is it used for?
A Mattel spokesperson said that the data won’t be used to market or sell anything, however abstract that may be. ToyTalk’s statement says that the data is meant to “help develop better speech recognition for children and improve the natural language processing of children’s speech.”
Would you have loved having Hello Barbie as a kid? Does it creep you out or set off any government conspiracy alarms? Tell us what you think.
(via Gizmodo)
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