Twoddler Lets Toddlers Send Tweets

By Alex in Baby & Kids, Blogs & Internet, Toys on Dec 9, 2009 at 3:46 am

What do you get when you mix Twitter with toddlers? Behold the Twoddler, a tricked-out Fisher Price Activity Center that lets toddlers send pre-arranged tweets to friends and family:

… the Twoddler, a tricked-out Fisher Price Activity Center with pictures of family members and friends attached and an Arduino board inside.

When a child presses a certain picture for a select amount of time, software captures sensor data from the activity center and selects and sends a predefined text related to that data.

For example, when Bobby plays with Mom’s picture for more than three minutes, a Twitter message will post to Bobby’s personal Twitter account saying, "@mommy_bobby Bobby misses mommy and looks forward playing with her this evening" (or as the messages get more refined and personalized: "@mommy_bobby Bobby is having a temper tantrum and wants mommy home now."

It even won at the 2009 Innovative and Creative Applications competition: Link | INCA Award 2009 – via Wired’s Gadget Lab

Tags: INCA Award, toddler, Twitter, Twoddler

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SenorMysterioso
Dec 9th, 2009 at 6:32 am
hope the box it comes in has censors
Briananna
Dec 9th, 2009 at 9:46 am
There is something delightfully wrong with the name of this invention…
Sid Morrison
Dec 9th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Yeah, sorry, but this is crap, not neat. People think that by buying their little kids some over-complicated hunk of plastic, it will somehow stimulate their intellect more than the parent playing with the kid or reading to him.

It’s really rather sad that the example given has the kid Tweeting that he misses his mommy and wants to play with her in the evening when she is home. Actually, the kid misses her NOW and would benefit from some interaction with her NOW, not in the evening. Go pay some attention to your kid instead of relying on others and gimicky gadgets like this.

My toddler (almost 3) has wooden blocks, non-electric push-toy trains (Brio style), lots & lots of books, Legos, flashcards, crayons, Tonka trucks, Matchbox cars, &c. Relatives know well not to get him and his little sister anything that “takes batteries or makes noise”.
Skipweasel
Dec 9th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Strange – it doesn’t appear to be April Fools day, but I can’t see any other reason for this to exist.

I assume the know what twaddle is?
alexander
Dec 9th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
wow, i’m pretty sure this is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse.
Jenjen
Dec 9th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Awesome! Now mommy can get a constant stream of reminders of the precious moments she is missing and the many times throughout the day when she is not there for her darling child. Because what most mommies of babies need is more ways to feel like a failure.
Rhiannon
Dec 9th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I was tweeting before I talked, they can say. Of course the tweets may immensely misrepresent what’s really on their little minds!
Gauldar
Dec 11th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
@Sid Morrison

At least these kids will have documentation of how their parents neglected them, so they have evidence for their reason to despise them later in life.

@alexander

Umm… yeah. Pestilence, Famine, War, and Fisher Price.
Bubbles
Feb 1st, 2010 at 2:42 pm
@Sid Morrison is a grouch.

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