Growing up in suburban Detroit, Dave Hampton
spent hours each week entertaining himself with a favorite plaything, his
pet iguana, Iggy. Hampton fed Iggy, mothered him and peered into his tank
to watch him change color, all the while feeling as if he were making the
world's most important discoveries. Thirty-five years later, a father of
two boys and a founder of his own company, Hampton parented a completely
different kind of animal, the Furby.
Furby, last year's holiday
"it" toy, is a fuzzy, gremlin-like electronic pet that launched a shopping
and media frenzy as it sweetly chirped in its own quirky language,
Furbish. Hampton invented Furby in 1997, hoping to re-create the sense of
wonder he
had felt playing with Iggy. "Living things have incredible depth to
them," says Hampton. "Children appreciate that. They're excited by it. I'd
like to see new toys that approach that level of depth and richness, and I
think we can do that with computers."
Hampton is one of the
toy-industry pioneers tackling ways to bring the power of digital
technology to a world whose best innovations -- the toy soldier, the Lego
brick and the teddy bear -- have endured generations of playtime. Smart
toys, from child-friendly computer peripherals to chip-filled bundles like
Furby, are just starting to catch on in a big way. But imagine a toy as
soft and lovable as a teddy bear, with a screen in its tummy that shows
complex and stunning digital images of content as rich
as a hyperlinked Winnie the Pooh. This teddy's brain is an
artificial-intelligence program that knows a child's favorite fairy tale
and her biggest learning challenges, while sensors throughout its body
detect the time of day as well as whether she's afraid, excited or happy.
And whenever it returns to the toy chest, teddy shares its new knowledge
with the other toys. While no one has made a toy quite like this yet, the
latest toys suggest our kids will be playing it this smart in the next
century.
