Furby

Furby is an electronic toy which was invented by the company Tiger Electronics is sold worldwide since 1998, the company Hasbro. In appearance it resembles a cross between a mouse, a cat and an owl or bat. Has the appearance of Furbies very similar to the look of the character Gizmo from the movie Gremlins series - Little Monsters. For this reason, there was also a dispute between Warner Bros. and Hasbro.

Functionality

For that to perceive "intelligent" Plush its surroundings, it has abs, back, noise, light and motion sensors, as well as a sensor in the mouth. With these sensors can distinguish whether it is tickled or stroked, if you talk to him or it moves in the air. Furby can react by eye and ear wiggling, moving his mouth, make noises, dance, sing and speak words. On his voice chip, a total of about 800 words on German (or the language of the country in which the Furby was sold ), and about 200 words stored on " furbisch " (the language of Furbies ). The non- furbischen words are, however, released in four different stages of development only gradually. This can be achieved after several hours of playing and feeding. Although a Furby can be sick but never dies. It has a reset function, the "forgotten" everything learned let him.

History

The first generation of Furbies possessed an infrared interface, which enabled her to communicate with other Furbies. The Furbies seemed to talk to each other and mutually sing songs, but they could also be in another Furby " infected " with a disease. The interface made ​​hackers to use in order to trigger this function with the help of a programmable remote control.

In 1999, then the Baby Furby series was introduced. This Furbies were smaller, were able to speak better, but had no feet with which they could dance.

Since September 2005 there is a successor generation of Furbies. This is characterized by the lack infrared port. The IR functions are now handled by speech recognition, the Furbies are substantially larger than the previous Furbies and they can give the user simple questions random answers. In addition, another Furby Baby generation was put on the market that respond relatively little to their environment, in contrast to their predecessors.

There is also a movie called Furby Furby - Iceland, which is available on DVD in German language.

Furby was designed by Caleb Chung. In December 2007, Caleb Chung gave a talk at TED, which describes, inter alia, the legislative history of Furby.

2012 Edition

In August 2012, the so-called Furby was introduced in 2012 edition. This is a newly developed from scratch generation of the toy, which, for example, digital eyes have been introduced in the course. Developers also have the software customized to Furbies can change their personality and respond to other Furbies. The Furby 2012 Edition can be controlled using an iOS or Android app from a distance. The toy was initially sold exclusively at Walmart in the United States. In Germany he appeared on 14 February 2013. Offers 10 variants, each with 5 Color Hot and Cool Color. Special Editions is available in the variants Cotton Candy, orang utan, Lagoona, Starry Night, Rain Cloud and Punk Pink. Since 2013 there are the colors red and black, yellow, turquoise, pink, yellow and turquoise - pink. Overall, the Furby can learn about 800 words in the course of its development.

Safety concerns

Furby could not be used in their buildings with the 1999 decision because of safety concerns of the National Security Agency; NSA feared an illegal monitoring and recording of safety information.