I’m a geek. And as a geek, I love my tech toys. But over time I’ve noticed toys are becoming harder to understand.
Some modern toys resemble advanced devices. There are flying toys, walking toys, and roving toys. A number of these require “configuring” or “connecting”.
The line between toy, gadget and professional device is blurrier than ever, as manufacturers churn out products including drones for kids and plush toys with hidden nanny cams.
With such a variety of sophisticated, and sometimes over-engineered products, it’s clear manufacturers have upped their game.
But why is this happening?
The Price of Tech
Toys these days seem to be designed with two major components in mind. It’s all about the smarts and rapid manufacture.
In modern toys, we see a considerable level of programmed intelligence. This can be used to control the toy’s actions, or have it respond to input to provide real time feedback and interaction – making it appear “smarter”.
This is all made possible by the falling price of technology.
Once upon a time, placing a microcontroller (a single chip microprocessor) inside a toy was simply uneconomical.
These days, they’ll only set you back a few dollars and allow significant computing power.
Microcontrollers are often WiFi and Bluetooth enabled, too. This allows “connected” toys to access a wide range of internet services, or be controlled by a smartphone.
Another boon for toy manufacturers has been the ..
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