CogniToys Puts the Power of a Supercomputer in a Child's Toy

In this weekly column, we look at the latest from the world of crowdfunding to see what's worth backing on sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

That's because some of the most interesting new products we've seen, ranging from fun oddities to what could conceivably be the next big thing, have come from these sites instead of big companies.

Not every project we highlight has to be the next Oculus Rift virtual reality headset or Pebble smartwatch - some of the projects we pick are just fun and weird. And of course, there is always the chance that a project will not work out even if it gets funded. But if you're willing to take a risk and can afford to write off a little money, then there's a lot to look at and maybe fund.

This week, you should definitely check out CogniToys - this cute little dinosaur for kids might be the smartest toy we've ever seen, and in just a day, the campaign has already blown past the $50,000 (approximately Rs. 31 lakh) goal.

The concept is simple - CogniToys wants to bring toys to life with speech and personality, allowing them to engage and grow with your children, telling them jokes and stories. But implementing this in a way that makes the toy genuinely smart isn't easy.

That's why the toy is speech enabled and connected to the Internet. CogniToys - one of the winners of IBM's Watson Mobile App Developer Challenge - can access IBM's supercomputer, which interprets the audio pickups in the toy and uses them in a number of interesting ways.

According to the CogniToys Kickstarter page, children will be able to ask the toys questions and receive age-appropriate answers. The toy will react to a variety of voice commands, and can tell children stories, or listen to them creating stories.

It also has an educational role, with spoken lessons in spelling, vocabulary, mathematics and more, and the educational content is made more advanced as the child interacts with it.

You can see the concept in motion in the video below:

The idea sounds amazing and the design of the toy is delightful. The price of the toy is expensive, but not unfeasible at $99 (approximately Rs. 6,100) for a CogniToy dinosaur. The estimated delivery for the toys is November 2015, and they will ship worldwide. The project will accept pledges until March 18.

To see more stories from the world of crowdfunding, click here.