Startup company Elemental Path has launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for CogniToys, which are next-generation dinosaur toys that pack IBM's powerful cognitive computing engine, Watson, for their brains.
Elemental Path has created technology that will allow children to engage directly with toys for intelligent conversations. CogniToys listen and speak to children, while simultaneously evolving, learning and growing with them.
"We bring toys to life with speech and a personality, allowing them to interactively engage and grow with a child," Elemental Path wrote on the KickStarter page for the cute dinosaur-designed CogniToys.
The CogniToys are speech enabled, with the child initiating the conversation by pressing the dinosaur's belly. Children can then ask questions and receive answers appropriate for their age, or give commands that will allow children to discover some hidden talents. Children can also listen to stories, and even create their own along with the toy. Knock knock jokes between the child and the toy are also possible.
As children continuously talk with CogniToys, the toys will develop a unique, evolving personality based on the interactions with their owners. As such, each toy will grow with each child, and will create experiences based on the personal interests of its owner.
Elemental Path is expecting the CogniToys to create fun and educational atmospheres, as the play experience comes with several custom modules which engage the children in educational play. The modules include topics for vocabulary, rhyming, spelling, mathematics, and many more. The content of the modules will increase in difficulty as the toy's owner learns about the topics.
CogniToys, according to Elemental Path, are the first truly "connected" toys as they connect to a cloud platform that provides the toys with appropriate and personalized responses to the questions and commands of children. The cloud platform will evolve as more children use CogniToys, which will also be receiving constant improvements as Elemental Path develops better content sources and releases updates.
The team behind Elemental Path started out as contestants to the IBM Watson Mobile App Developer Challenge, sending in an entry of a toy that is able to learn and grow with children. The team received the title of Grand Prize Winners out of hundreds of entries, allowing them to receive access to IBM Watson.
The Kickstarter campaign for CogniToys is looking to raise at least $50,000 in funding, with rewards for backers including receiving their own CogniToys and, for a pledge of $1,000, an educational package consisting of 10 units of CogniToys and 10 personalized pieces of content for a chosen school with exclusive updates.
