T.V. Teddy looks just like an old-fashioned plush teddy bear. But nestled inside the cute little guy's stuffing are enough radio electronics and robotics to make the Terminator feel positively inadequate by comparison.
With all this fancy gear to animate Teddy, you'd expect kids to have a great time making it say things and controlling the mechanism that manipulates its eyes and mouth. But all control of the bear is directed by specially prepared VHS tapes (one is included with the package; others are sold separately) that have an encoded control track, which is invisible to the viewer. This track is picked up by the T.V. Teddy Transmitter, a device that hooks up to the VCR, and the signal is sent to Teddy. When a character on the TV talks or asks T.V. Teddy a question, the bear responds in a squeaky voice of indeterminate gender. Observing T.V. Teddy having a dialogue with a character on the TV screen is as real as watching C3P0 talk to R2D2. The child is assigned the role of passive observer, not included in the conversation.
Will kids want to watch TV with an interactive friend that ignores them? ABC-TV seems to think so. Later this year the network is planning to broadcast several T.V. Teddy specials that will include the data to control the speech and behavior of robot bears in living rooms all over the country.
T.V. Teddy: US$69.99. Individual tapes: $12. Yes! Entertainment: +1 (510) 847 9444.
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