Already thinking of what to buy your child for Christmas? How about a cute and cuddly Augmented Reality (AR) Teddy Bear that doubles up as a fluffy cadaver for your kids to explore?
Developed by seedling, a company that redefines the nature of play by creating a set of innovative toys and products that help harness the creative spirit and learning capabilities of children, ‘Parker’ is the world’s first ever bear that uses Augmented Reality to create an interactive world that brings children’s imagination to life.
Priced at $59.99 and available for purchase now, Parker requires nothing more than a mobile or tablet device with the Parker App installed on it to function and enables children to live out their childhood fantasies whilst simultaneously nurturing early ambitions of a future career in medicine.
Parker, god bless him, isn’t the healthiest bear in the woods and will regularly fall victim to tummy bugs, fevers, sore bones or a scratchy throat, and as his sole carer, it is the child’s responsibility to nurse him back to sunny days whenever he’s feeling under the weather.
Along with a special thermometer that lets the child take his temperature, the smartphone/tablet application will use the device’s camera to inspect the bears internal organs and monitor the bears happiness levels that increase every time the child solves a problem or completes a game.
As a S.T.E.A.M. toy, Parker creates a multidimensional way to learn that covers everything from:
- Science (teaches biology and basic anatomy)
- Technology (promotes digital literacy through app learning and AR)
- Engineering (teaches critical thinking and problem-solving skills)
- Arts (allows children to create drawings and design bandages)
- Maths (through puzzles and games)
As we saw at with the Ford Mixed Reality demonstration at Microsoft Ignite last week, Parker is yet another example of how augmented reality is really starting to take hold of the world we live in and will drastically alter the way humans of all ages will communicate, collaborate and learn in the future.
How do you feel about the arrival of the world’s first AR Teddy Bear? Would you buy Parker for your child? If you have any thoughts you wish to share, or if you’d like to discuss this article with other readers, please feel free to submit your thoughts to the comments section below.
