Inside the secretive Smart Toy Lab, some two dozen Intel engineers and Mattel toy and software designers are hard at work. This month, they unveil the first Intel Play product: The QX3 Computer Microscope lets kids capture images with a detachable lens, view them onscreen, add special effects, and create time-lapse movies. Like the other PC-powered playthings planned for Intel Play (www.intelplay.com), the QX3 combines Mattel's toy smarts and marketing and distribution muscle with Intel's brand power, bucks, and tech know-how. "Over the last couple of years you've seen plush toys, like Microsoft ActiMates, that were an evolution of a talking teddy bear," says Michael Bruck, codirector at the lab, in Portland, Oregon. "This is not just electronics shoved into a toy you've seen before."
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