Kids these days are not happy with using just their imagination in order to spend some time playing in the great outdoors. No sir, their minds will need to be fed as well as cajoled into thinking. Gone are the days where you give them just an empty cardboard box, and they will be able to turn it into a fortress, protecting the inhabitants within from a fiery dragon, or transforming it into a space shuttle so that they can explore the wonders of space. Since all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and playing these days does seem to be turning into a highly expensive thing to do, how about taking a step back and try something different to tickle the minds of your little ones? Enter Ubooly, a Kickstarter project that has already raised a fair amount of money to enter production.
The Ubooly is a customizable toy that was built by teachers, and you will need a smartphone or tablet to have it work as intended. First of all, you will need to insert a smartphone or tablet into the top of the Ubooly’s head, zip it close, and watch the Ubooly “boot up”. Thanks to the inclusion of speech-recognition technology, Ubooly is able to listen, respond, and will be equipped with hundreds of activities that are added onto each week so that every play session can be different from the rest. Touted to feature one of the highest retention rates in the toy industry, we do wonder whether the Ubooly could end up as the next Furby or not, Japanese speaking or otherwise. [Kickstarter Page]
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