The Aristotle, by toymaker Mattel, is an Amazon Alexa voice assistant, a smart automated baby monitor that can help your child sleep, a fun teaching toy, and much more.
The $300 Aristotle by Nabi, coming this June, is like an Amazon Echo -- it's got Amazon's Alexa voice assistant built into a speaker, too -- but filled with extra features that could make it a parent's dream come true.
For one thing, it comes with a camera that can act like a smart baby monitor -- not only does it stream encrypted video to your phone, but it can also tell when your infant has woken up and automatically sooth it to sleep. At least that's what Mattel is promising.
The Aristotle can play a lullaby or act as a night light, or even answer the questions of a young kid who doesn't want to go to bed. That's because (in addition to Alexa) it has a second voice assistant, Aristotle, that can (allegedly) understand young children.
There's also a multicolored LED array inside so it can play true-false games with kids, flashing green for correct and red for false. Kids might have to identify shapes or animal sounds.
It's a fully fledged smart-home controller, too, just like the Amazon Echo. Mattel says it's compatible with Wink, Wemo, Smart Things, Philips Hue, ZigBee and IFTTT among others.
The Aristotle could also provide sound effects for kids toys. Mattel is building a Hot Wheels track that the Aristotle could identify with its camera -- or embedded NFC antennas in the toys -- and provide the "vroom" sounds.
Some other things Mattel says the Aristotle will do: Log wet diapers and feedings via voice commands or a phone app, and automatically order more supplies...
Host sing-alongs, teach ABCs and 1-2-3s, and read aloud thousands of kids' books via a partnership...
Mattel says it could even give older kids foreign language lessons and help them with their homework. If only, right?