Is your child's next toy going to be virtual?
I'm Rafe Needleman at the Augmented Reality Event at Santa Clara talking to Miles Ludwig from the Sesame Workshop.
Tell me about what my kid is gonna be using next.
Well, Rafe, we're looking at how can Augmented Reality create new kids of educational experiences that can help us teach kids numbers and letters and all the other important skills that are a part of what Sesame Street does and working with Qualcomm and using their Euphoria Engine, we've been able to build a prototype in which children can play with familiar Sesame Street figures like Ernie here.
Place Ernie into a room and Ernie comes to life.
He becomes an animated character.
That's right.
So kids are able to play with physical objects just as they might play with a play set or doll house but then looking at them through the tablet, looking at the scene they've created and the choices that they've made, it animates the character come to life and they start suggesting inert educational story lines in ways of interaction, interacting that will bring learning.
How do you interact?
Do you move them around?
Do you talk to them or?
That's right.
You can move them around.
You can, so if I place this object into the room for example, this jukebox.
Boom.
Now, we're having a dance party.
Disco Ernie.
Pretty cool, huh?
All right.
Exactly.
And one of things that we are testing with kids because our organization is very research-driven.
It's a non-profit.
Everything that we do is about getting out there, putting things in front of kids and finding out what engages them and what ultimately drives educational outcome.
That's why it's giving my kid a virtual reality app and a fragile tablet better than just giving him a couple of toys.
I would not necessarily say that it was better but our mission is to help children reach their fullest potential and we avail ourselves or every option, every platform, every technology that parents ultimately are going to be choosing to put in front of their kids.
We wanna make sure there's something positive and constructive for it.
So when are our kids gonna get this?
I hope we'll see it early next year.
All right.
Thanks a lot.
Thanks, Rafe.
For CNET, I'm Rafe Needleman.
