DailyTech - CES 2012: Sesame Street Hints AR Tablet Toys Will Be the Tickle-Me Elmo of 2012

Submit News

Gadgets CES 2012: Sesame Street Hints AR Tablet Toys Will Be the Tickle-Me Elmo of 2012
Jason Mick (Blog) - January 11, 2012 12:00 PM

13 comment(s) - last by OoklaTheMok.. on Jan 12 at 12:58 PM

Be warned your child may be screaming for a tablet soon

As if "Tickle-me Elmo" wasn't bad enough, now the Sesame Workshop -- makers of Sesame Street -- have to come along and whip children into a frenzy over smartphones and tablets.

At a humorous section in Qualcomm Inc.'s (QCOM) Tuesday morning presser, Sesame Workshop director and chief operating officer H. Melvin Ming talked about how he never knew what he was going to face for the day -- adults or screaming kids. He quipped, "I'm relieved to be in a room today with tech-savvy adults."

Soon Grover took to the stage for a jaw-dropping (for Grover at least) demo of a hot new high tech toy from Sesame Workshop. The Sesame Street Playset is a series of nondescript blocks, but it uses Qualcomm's Vuforia -- an augmented reality (AR) and 3D modelling suite -- to bring the objects to life.

By taking pictures of the 3D characters (think little Sesame Street action figures), Bert and Ernie sprung to life on the smartphone/tablet, talking to the observer. You could take more pictures of objects to add more vibrant objects to the room -- such as a TV that insulted Grover's waiting skills and a jukebox.

Of course the thing is a great deal for both Sesame Workshop, Qualcomm, and smartphone/tablet-makers everywhere because in order to get this hot new toy you have to both buy the playset and a compatible Qualcomm-equipped smartphone or tablet.

But ponying up the likely $300+ USD cost of the system is for a good cause, they insist as the playset reportedly helps children build:

social skills
language skills
creativity

Grover drew slightly less enthusiasm from the audience for his promised upcoming electronic eggbeater. But can you blame him for trying?

All images © of Jason Mick and DailyTech LLC.

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

Looks like a worthy upgrade from our Speak N Spell

By Arbie on 1/11/2012 4:00:54 PM , Rating: 2

Which BTW did not hurt social skills any more than this would. A toy is what you give kids for when they can't be with others. This is just another toy, but with some serious educational potential. A carry-around, play anytime, tutor on almost anything. How about games in a choice of second languages? It can be wonderful.