Friday, March 4, 2005

Teddy-bear baby monitor?

A slightly chilling sign of things to come or just a concept teddy bear? That's the question raised by this scenario from the Associated Press: The toy bear "sitting in the corner of the child's room might look normal, until his head starts following the kid around using a face recognition program, perhaps also allowing a parent to talk to the child through a special phone, or monitor the child via a camera and wireless Internet connection." AP reports that there are already toys for sale that "know a child's name or can incorporate other personal information." The problem is, what if that toy gets into the hands of someone with bad intentions? More and more I think parents need to be part of design teams because techies can get understandably excited about the capabilities they're developing; the downside just leaves their radar screens.

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