Barbie has been around since the spring of 1959, but the famous doll had yet to have a voice.
Little girls will now be able to have a full on conversation with their Barbie doll as she’ll soon be able to communicate via Wi-Fi and voice-recognition technology, according to the tech publication PC Mag.
The new and improved Barbie, which Mattel showcased at Toy Fair this week, will reportedly be able to remember the responses of its owner, store the data in the cloud and get to know him or her over time, very much like the iPhone’s Siri.
The Hello Barbie doll will “remember and get to know my likes and dislikes,” a spokeswoman for Mattel stated.
Hello Barbie can reportedly provide as long as an hour’s worth of playtime when fully charged. A microphone, speaker and two tricolor LEDs will be embedded in the doll’s necklace while the rechargeable batteries in its legs can be connected to an external wall-mounted charger, according to BBC News.
Hello Barbie, which is expected to go on sale for about $74.99, has yet to have a release date. However, following Hello Barbie’s debut in various toy stores, children may be able to experience other smart toys that will be able to interact with them.
Vivid Toy group released Cayla, a doll that uses speech-recognition and Google’s translation tools, last November and now, a startup on Kickstarter is reportedly working to develop a line of smart toys for children.
“Toys have to keep up with the expectations of children, stated Natasha Crookes, director of communications for the British Toy and Hobby Association.
She continued, “As long as children are protected from being able to access anything online, there is no harm in internet-connected toys. Companies take a lot of care making sure that there are white lists and black lists for content.”
Although the development of toys like Hello Barbie is exciting, there has been concern amongst critics that this new wave of technology-based toys will take away from children using their imaginations during playtime, but Crookes begs to differ.
“Such toys can enhance traditional play,” explained Crookes.
She added, “Some of the time, children will play with the toy in internet-connected mode, and some of the time they will play with them in the traditional way, using their imagination.”
