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More and More Tech Going Into Toys

Techstination feature for Tuesday, February 15, 2000

More and more toys turn high tech. I'm Fred Fishkin with Bootcamp, a report on computers and technology. Nearly two thousand manufacturers at the 97th annual American International Toy Fair... and the hot topic is high tech... ..

"Are you here to play with me? Wow, that's great!"

Alphy a Teddy Bear from General Creation uses handwriting recognition to teach toddlers how to write letters.

"Whoops! I think you're writing backwards."

Then there's Cell Phone Sally... a doll that calls its owner on a toy cell phone ... .and uses voice recognition...

"What number comes before 10?" "Nine" "Thank you, mommy, you're so smart."

On the video game side, Sega's Dreamcast will be using speech recognition in a new game called Sea Man... .

"By the way, are you a guy or a girl?" "Girl." "Oh, you're a woman. Good. Do you like guys with scales? Tell me, what's your sign, babe?"

More games will be using speech too as Sega battles Sony, which will be out this year with PlayStation II. At Hasbro Interactive, President Tom Dusenberry predicts... just about everyone will want one...

"And it's more than a game machine. It's a home entertainment system which provides DVD movies, DVD audio and some very sophisticated video games."

It should be on the market this Fall.