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Turing doll?
August 26, 2005

Can technology-intensive toys inspire an interest in engineering among children? Amazing Amanda employs speech-recognition and memory chips, radio frequency tags and scanners, and facial robotics in an effort "to make a little girl feel like the doll loves her," according to Judy Shackelford, the doll's creator, as reported in the New York Times.

The article quotes Ms. Shackelford as saying, "Amanda may prove that girls as well as boys can embrace technology in their toys."

Unfortunately from an engineering perspective, Amanda's technology is largely hidden to customers. According to the Times article, David Riley, of market-research firm NPD Group, says that obvious motors and controls--like the pull cord that initiated repetition of canned phrases in the 1960s' Chatty Cathy doll--would detract from a girl's enjoyment of a toy.

Consequently, Amanda's designers provide only a single, hidden button that wakes her up. In fact, Amanda seems to be an evolutionary step toward a Turing doll--one behaviorally indistinguishable from a child and hence no more likely to inspire an interest in technology than would a new baby.

As the forgoing quotes and paraphrases from the Times article indicate, gender-neutral political correctness is out the window with Amazing Amanda. That being the case, let me suggest that perhaps the brothers of Amanda's "mothers" will be inspired to wonder how it is that each Amanda can respond uniquely to her owner's voice, assume a facial expression appropriate to a given situation, and recognize what type of "food" is put before her. (Of course, sisters and the "mothers" themselves are welcome to be similarly inspired.)

There's one glitch with Amazing Amanda's food-recognition technology: The article notes that if Amanda asks for peas and is given a cookie, she'll complain. That sort of response puts her a long way from passing the Turing test.

Meanwhile, Amanda's caretakers and siblings (and who knows, maybe Amanda herself) may benefit from a trip to the Boston Museum of Science. Please see the next post.

Posted by Rick Nelson on August 26, 2005 | Comments (0)