Spookies

Spookies "...are plush animals with faces.... The Spookies come in pairs and communicate with each other through a wireless radio link within a range of 200 meters.

CAPABILITIES
There are seven different pairs of Spookies that with help from their sensors can perform tasks, for example feel the movement of people, listen to buddies, send secret codes, photograph and see how far away the best friend is. The capabilities are strongly connected to the Spookies appearance, making their function more obvious.

"INTERCONNECTION - MILLIONS OF POSSIBILITIES
Pairs of Spookies can be connected to each other, together forming a new toy with new combined capabilities. The possibilities of combination are numerous and are only limited by imagination as each Spookie has two in and two out ports. Three Spookies, one Audio, one movement and one timer can for example be connected and together build a new unit that, after it is actuated by movement, listens for a time set by the timer unit....

Spooky.

Even spookier when you read their research proposition. I quote:

"Today’s computerised toys tend to restrain children’s natural need to move and interact socially by locking the interaction to a screen. Adding to this the fact that the interaction often situates merely between the user and his/hers computerised artefact leaves the social togetherness between children suffering. Interactive toys are often formed to be a substitute for a friend or pet. We believe that there is a need for new electronic toys that have a positive influence on children’s social and physical development."

So, I'm thinking that these "social toys" are precursors, not only of what we'll see in the kids' playroom, but also what we'll find in classrooms and business offices even. Toys and gadgets that mediate - between themselves, between us. New sports, maybe, with robots and humans, playing together and between.