Information comes to one in the most unexpected of manners. Earlier in the year, I was watching one of my favorite vloggers on YouTube, grav3yardgirl when I chanced upon a video of her talking about her recent Furby.
Up till then, my knowledge of the Furby was minimal. I just thought of it as 'that creepy toy from the 90s' that reminded me of The Gremlins, and left it at that. After watching this video, I am still of the opinion that the Furby is one of the creepiest toys of today - except that something about how horrified I was with the creature actually struck a chord in me. It was a morbid obsession, watching videos of various Furbies just to marvel at how horrifying they were.
When chance came however, and I had to do a project on Information Technology, I decided that this latest 'obsession' would be the perfect 'pet' project. Not only was the Furby just merely a toy, I was sure some sort of complicated programming had gone into it, making one it one of the most interactive commercially available toys around. Digging around through the Internet, it was found that lots of people have indeed taken the Furby apart to find out exactly what goes on behind these creepy furballs.
Light sensors, Touch sensors, Mechanics, Audio communication, voice sensors and of course programming codes sealed secret shut with epoxy on a circuit board are all part of the Furby's insides. While it is all very fascinating, of course, I decided to study those components that were most associated with the bigger historical development of Toys in general, because the Furby surely is not the first invention to have all the above mentioned features.
The Technologies I decided to pick out were Mechanical systems, Radio technology/communications, as well as microprocessors. I thought that these three would give a pretty comprehensive overview of how technology in toys have evolved over the years.
Happy perusing my humble site and feel free to leave any thoughts or comments at all!
xx
How to use: Use the Prezi at the top of the page to guide you through the rough timeline, and then click on the links for more detailed information. Once you're done, go back to Prezi and continue where you left off! I hope it helps!
Now, put Electro-mechanic devices, Radio/Sound control devices, programming and micro-processing together and what does one get?
Toys that come alive aren't as new an 'invention' as we might think. While it is true that the Furby is probably one of the most advanced, commercially available toys sold today, toys that fulfill the above three criteria have existed as early as the 1980s.
One of the more popular 'it's alive' type of toys would be the Teddy Ruxpin, which first came out in 1985. Ruxpin was a sort of learning toy, which could 'read' stories via inserting a tape into him. He could also move, of course.
Terribad 80s advertisement
However, one of the most advanced toys made in the 1980s could arguably be Playmate's 'Animated Jill'. Playmates had released several dolls that could 'sing' (eg. Corky and Cricket) before, but Jill, released in 1987, and although her 'audio tracks' ran on different tapes, she could move her arms, head, mouth, and could 'interact' with its owner (based on set options, of course). However, Jill cost almost USD$200 back then and nearly set the Playmates company bankrupt. What is interesting is that Animated Jill seems to have a microprocessor that was built by intel. So it was truly quite advanced for its time.
(Update: Found the patent for Jill. She uses a "INTEL 8051 microprocessor with 4 K-bytes of ROM and 128 bytes of RAM Processor ". Link below)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Ja1dxOGhA
This video shows the microprocessor and a little on how the doll in general works.
Teddy Ruxpin and Animated Jill can be said to be the precursor to the Furby, which was released in 1998 by Tiger. In a way, the orginal Furby and the Furby of today fulfill the same function; they were furry beings (some people call them a mix between a hamster and an owl) who could respond to humans as well as other Furbies (through infrared). The Furby starts by speaking 'Furbish' but as time goes on it will 'learn' to speak more and more English. It could also 'move' by rocking band forth, moving their eyes and wagging their ears up and down.
In the early 2000s Mattel released their answer to the Furby - Diva Starz. Much like the Furby, these toys could speak, and will become more familiar with you the more you played with them by revealing their secrets, etc. They could also communicate with one another. Unlike the Furby, though, the Diva Starz was obviously marketed to girls, because they were fashion dolls and revolved around things like clothes and pets (typical). The Diva Starz were wildly popular in the 2000s and even had a MacDonalds happy meal figurine line. However, for some reason they fell into decline after just two years, and Mattel went on on develop other projects.
In 1999, Japanese company Sony released a robot-pet called the AIBO. This toy-dog robot, which was quite advanced for its time, could 'see live video' and 'hear' and react to human commands. The AIBO could cost anywhere from USD$1.5k - USD$2k so it was certainly a 'novelty' product and could not be owned by everyone.The AIBO seemed quite complex, it worked using both a memory stick and a program called AIBOware, on top of its multiple sensors and mechanical engineering. In 2005, the line was discontinued. Nevertheless, the AIBO was a showcase of the possibilities of Japanese technology, and a direction which interactive toys could take- although admittedly it would make a toy way to expensive. Is it just me or does the AIBO seem cuter and more applicable to a Japanese household? (also it seems like the English version doesn't 'speak' but make sounds instead - the Japanese one seems more endearing, if you understood Japanese of course)
In the 2005 Tiger Electronics released a new Furby, and this model was bigger and furrier than the first. It was not until 2012 however, when Hasbro bought over the Furby empire that major updates to the Furby were made - its response time was fast, for example, and the Furby had more reaction patterns.
The Furby seems not only to have captured the imagination of children, but geeky adults alike. Many a project has been dedicated to find out what exactly goes on behind the head of this zany furry friend. There are two main components of the Furby: The Mechanics and the Electronics. The Furby seems to run on dual microcontrollers to function. And while people have made attempts to break and/or rewrite Furby's function coding, Hasbro's chips still remain remain largely a mystery. Although, Michael Coppola does give us some fascinating insight and images of the Epoxy covered chips when he decided to corrode the epoxy and take some high-res pictures of the chips (using school facilities, of course!)
These interactive toys are mostly made for children, who more often than not do not think beyond the outward function of the toy. A look into what goes on inside these toys, however, even in the seemingly simple Tamagotchi, proves truly entertaining for the discerning adult as well.
Now that we have come this far in our examination of toys, what's next? What are some some of the issues that are pertinent to this study?
From the Automata to the Furby, it is clear that there is so much more to a toy than just being a child's play thing; these objects are usually well thought out and require both engineering and programming skills- Mechanics are still highly important to toys in this digital age because it makes toys 'interactive' on a physical level- because for some reason the ability of objects to move amuses people. While the programming aspect is highly important to the development or 'smartness' of a toy. Therefore, toys in itself are pieces of technology that not only should one not disregard. The ‘value’ of a toy lies not only in its physical, final product, but as a culmination of the development of the toy and the people working to develop these toys, which many people fail to appreciate. Unfortunately this is the case with many products in our commercialised, capitalist economy- we seldom think beyond the physical product that we buy, and only see the value of an item in regard to how it interacts with our own personal lives.
Life imitating Art?
Can toys be considered 'art' that imitates life? The Mechanical Animals section explored how interactive or 'smart' toys reflect mimesis. These toys not only conjure up an imaginary realm that the toys, as objects are 'real' to the person who owns them, it is also an imitation of the existing world that we live in. As a snide, ironic take to this however, it can be said that the Furby evokes "anti-mimesis" where life imitates art instead. Because the Furby is so alien and completely different from any life form that we can conceive, and its behavior so erratic, its owners tend to end up 'imitating' it, whether in trying to communicate, speaking in furbish to the toy, or as an annoyed reaction of frustration to this toy which more often than not has completely no regard for its owner - this drives some people quite crazy.
From expensive to commercial
Another trend in the making of toys which can be observed is that many of them seem to evolve from technologies that were once expensive and 'exclusive'. For example, radio technology and microprocessors, where technologies that stemmed from and recieved huge funding during wars for military technological development. They could not successfully be used in toys until the industry found ways to mass produce them at a low cost: case in point: complicated purely mechanical like Karakuri and Automata are not widely available these days (nor were they ever, probably) because of the expertise it takes to create just one object, and this knowledge is only limited to a few people. Later toys like the Playmate's Jill Doll and Sony's AIBO never took to much prominence because, as novel as they were, people were simply not willing to pay that much for what they deemed to be a 'toy'. In contrast, RC cars and the Tamagotchi, while using simpler technology, is pretty affordable, and so is its popularity. The 2013 Furby is a little bit of an exception - in the United States it could be considered a mid-range toy, a single unit could cost from about $40-$60. Outside the the US, however, such as places like Singapore and Australia, Furby prices go up to about SGD/AUD$100++, which is probably why the Furby is not as such a widespread phenomenon outside the US- Furthermore toys in the ~$100 price range would probably appeal more to adults who buy it for themselves, so the demography is also a little different.
Security and the modified world
Did you know that in the 90's the Furby was banned in the NSA building because it feared that Furby would be used as a 'spying' device? Marketed as being able to 'learn' English (it was really just a time-release program) there were urban myths about the Furby that it records the human voice to learn words. The NSA was paranoid that the Furby might 'leak' NSA secrets while talking to people outside the building.
In 2010, Mattel released a Barbie Doll called 'Barbie Video Girl'. Basically, it was a video camera device setup in the inside of a Barbie Doll, which could take up to 30 minutes of footage at each time. There was a huge controversy surrounding this seemingly innocuous type of novelty, the FBI, as well as Australian Parenting website Today's Mom raised the issue that this doll might possibly be used for child pornography, or activities along that vein.
The above stories are just but two examples of how toys can easily be misconstrued for more sinister purposes other than play. However, it would not be fair to say that these concerns are wholly unjustified. To take this situation step further: Do you remember when we explored how there seems to be a trend among computer engineers (and even toy - restorers for that matter) to take apart and reverse engineer the toys we love? And remember how I mentioned kids found ways to 'hack' a Digimon?
Reverse engineering and hacking the program code for toys mean that these objects are pretty modifiable if one really wants to. In this day and age where most IT resources are readily available and computer programming and engineering no longer limited to a select few people (as opposed to in the 1950s, for example). Almost anyone would be able to take a commercial toy and modify it accordingly...there are many possibilities to what one can do.
Natalie Silvanovich is just one person who has shown that we can reprogram IR sensors to carry out personal commands, while the Furbies of 2012 onward communicate via High Frequency Sound - which recent researches in acoustic communications are looking into to develop more applications for it human life, but it also raises the issue of security breeches and hacking.
Furby Bending
Threat to humanity aside, there are creative applications in toy modification, too. "Circuit Bending" is sort of a experimental, creative movement that modifies the current flow of low voltage electronic devices such as toys, music players, musical instruments to achieve a modified sound. Electronic components can be moved or added to achieve the desired effect. People have circuit bent Furbies to immensely interesting effects. But this also goes to show that toys can function beyond their intended purpose, and the possibilities of what one can do are almost endless.
In the 1990s, portable console games emerged. Some may remember the 'Brick Game' which was really a console dedicated to the Tetris game. Tetris, incidentally, was programmed by a bored Russian computer scientist, Alexei Pajitnov.
Game programming, which come up as a field as early as people realised computers could be used for entertainment too, would extend its application out of computers and into handheld game consoles in the 1990s. Famous companies include Japanese brands Nintendo and SEGA. However, what really spurred game programming in toys was really the availability of smaller, cheaper circuit-boards and microprocessors which could be mass-produced.
In 1996/1997, (again) Japanese toy producer Ban Dai released the Tamagotchi and the Digimon devices, both very similar to each other. Basically, these were electronic pets that were kept on a device that was small enough to be a keychain, and these pets needed looking after eg, fed, cleaned and could evolve, or 'grow'.
Tamago Circuit Board
Digimons could fight each other via 'connecting' the devices through sending electronic data codes to each other which would sort of 'trade' data between devices, and the outcome would be based on a pre-programmed algorithm. (This though is only a hypothesis, through discussion with peers who remember playing with Digimon as kids). So far we have not managed to find any sources on reverse-engineering a Digimon. Digimons were said to have been easily 'hacked' by children, though, by inserting various 'chip' cards in a certain way to 'confuse' the device, leading it to 'level up' their Digimon faster. (Again, this information was gotten through asking people what they remember of the Digimon) This perhaps shows that perhaps during the 90s, the codes written for Digimon, at least were probably not very complicated.
Ban Dai has recently stepped up their game, though. Later versions of the Tamagotchi could connect with each other through Infra-red, and , since there seems to be more interest in hacking a Tamagotchi, while most people agree that Tamagotchi uses a ROM code, no one has yet been able to 'dump' the ROM, though they have been able to modify the Tamagotchi in various other ways. Natalie Silvanovich, who presented her project on reverse engineering a Tamagotchi in Germany has by far the most comprehensive set of information regarding the make up of a Tamagotchi. Silvanovich's research has led her to find out that the Tamagotchi used an 8bit, 6502 microprocessor. This was first made by MOS Technology in 1975, and was used in computers like the apple IIe and the Nintendo Family computer!
The significance behind these small, keychain toys is to show how tiny and advanced circuit-boards and microprocessors can really get. 1996 was before the time of smart phones being affordable and commercially available so compared to that, the Tamagotchi and Digimon are really quite novel devices, if one considers that these stemmed from pre- World War II technologies which used to occupy rooms of space which could do less than what these 'toys' (I guess one could now argue they were mini-computers) could.
Furthermore, almost every 'smart toy' today (including Furby, no doubt!) would probably have a microprocessor in it, the Tamagotchi's were certainly not the first toys to use microprocessors in them, as we will see from the next section , It's Alive!
Even before wireless technologies like the telegraph became a widespread phenomenon in the late 19th Century, Nikola Tesla was already well aware of the possible entertainment purposes of Radio technology. In 1898, he showcased an early example of a radio controlled boat, which utilized pre-'programmed' circuitswithin the boat which could execute commands via radio frequency. This is one of the earliest examples of a radio controlled device. Although radio technology was developed in World War I, it was not until World War II that extensive research was put into utilizing it for war. The Germans were highly interested in using radio to control missiles, the British and United states too, were very keen on radio development, but this technology was not used extensively in weaponry due to the unstable results of their experiments.
The radio control systems of the 1940s were generally electromechanical in nature, The radio transmitter would transmit different frequencies in response to the movements of a control sticks, such as on off signals. This would later, in commercial RC vehicles develop to accommodate other commands such as right, left, neutral as well as different speeds.
It was the advent of transistors in the 1960s, which allowed low voltage equipment to be made, and thus the option of using RC in small models were made feasible. Although RC vehicles first gained popularity in the UK and US, by the 1970s Japanese RC controlled vehicles such as those from Tamiya were soon gaining widespread popularity too.
In later years, Infrared (IR) would also be used in the controlling of toy vehicles, especially that of IR controlled Aeroplanes, which could fly and do all sorts of complicated maneuvers. The original Furby of 1998 used infrared ports to communicate with each other. The Furbies of 2012 onward however, now use high-frequency sound coding to communicate with each other, as well as cell phones, since infrared is no longer a popular phone feature. HFS is increasingly being used in mobile and computer devices to transmit information.
The Mechanical aspect of toys takes us all the way back to the 18th Century Europe. At this time, there seemed to be an interest in producing intricate mechanical 'toys', which were really more like objects of curiosity were made. These figures were called Automatons, and were made to varying degrees of complexities. To shed more light into the mechanics of Automantons, they incorporated a mix of mechanical parts such as "cranks, gears, and pulleys", all interconnected to execute a series of movements. This technology used was akin to that of mechanical clocks and music boxes. By all accounts, however, Automaton making is largely limited to a few people, due to the complexities of making one. An Automaton maker had to have in depth knowledge of both mechanical and aesthetic feasibility. Furthermore,it is believed that trade secrets to the engineering of these pieces were never recorded, and died together with these Automaton makers. People in the 18th Century did however, seem to have a healthy intrigue with automatons, the popular ballet Coppelia was basically about Automatons, and E.T.A Hoffman featured Automatons in one of his short stories .
Automatons of the 18th century seemed to be fairly intricate, and were not just limited to humanoid figures. According to Henri Decremps, these Automatons could be constructed to do a vast array of things, including writing playing card games, playing chess, speak (?) as well as play music. Although automatons were not strictly toys, per se, as they certainly were not meant for casual play and would have been much to expensive to be commonly available, The idea of using mechanics to make a moving object would in the future would be extremely relevant to toy making.
There were mechanical dolls which were popular during the Edo period(17th-19th century) in Japan, too. Called Karakuri, the mechanical technology of Japan was inspired by both a mix of the water clock technology in China as well as what little western science they manged to get their hands on. These Karakuri had various purposes. Some could be used in stage shows, while others were made for home entertainment (they could serve tea) or festivals.
In the late 19th Century, french company Jumeau produced a doll called Bebe Phonographe. While the doll was not exactly an automaton in the sense that it could not move. the makers incorporated a mechanical talking device into the doll. The Bebe Phonographe could supposedly tell stories and sing songs. Like the automaton, however, Bebe too was sort of a rare object these days- only a handful of batches were produced as she was extremely expensive.
Inside of a Jumeau and Talking Barbie
Skip about 70 years ahead to the 1960s, where toy company Mattel were finally able to produce mechanical talking dolls that used a simple pull-string and speaker mechanism and were affordable to make and sell, although these dolls were only able to speak a few lines. Their popular models included 'Chatty Cathy' , a baby doll and ‘talking barbie’, a fashion doll.
While it is true that commercial toys of today do not incorporate as complex mechanical movements as the automatons of the past (everything is programmable these days anyway), the concept behind these objects could almost be discerned as mimesis - or the attempt to mimic real-life. Of course, the idea is that it is near impossible to try and portray 'reality' - could that be a reason why the furby- with its own language and unidentifiable species is able to capture hearts of adults and kids more than any 'living doll' or 'animal' can? Most interactive toys of today would use both a speaker and microphone system to detect the human voice. Presumably they have also adapted and incorporated voice recognition technologies into these toys.
