One step closer to the ultimate stuffed animal.
The good people over at MIT are working on something amazing.
It isn’t the cure for cancer.
It isn’t lasers.
It isn’t better weapons.
It isn’t rockets.
It’s better. It’s a stuffed teddy bear that hugs back. Oh my fricking gosh.
We now we have all wanted one of those since childhood, or at least since seeing the film Artificial Intelligence. Remember Teddy the “super toy” from that film? He was the main characters companion throughout the majority of the film.
This Huggable(TM) from MIT will have touch/force/temperature sensors all over it’s body, cameras behind it’s eyes and a speaker in it’s nose area. It will be available in the future for hospitals and schools for some thousands of dollars. This gives me a whole new reason to strike it rich.
The only other downside is that I worry these things hugs may be more like death grips, attempting to enslave humanity like we know robots eventually will… Okay, so I may be getting ahead of myself with that. Give it time, you’ll see.
Just remember, “I am not a toy.”
-That One Person
That One Blog 
November 25, 2008 at 3:19 PM
this cracks me up.
although i agree, im more afraid it will have an insane death grip,
even worse than my bonecracking one!!
*gasp*
i hope it comes out soon.. there are a few people i could kill 😉
November 25, 2008 at 4:40 PM
But YOU’RE already my teddy bear.
:O
November 25, 2008 at 5:09 PM
@ Kristin
Yeah, I plan on having an army of these at my disposal.
@ Danube
You win.
November 25, 2008 at 9:39 PM
Well, Ison, I have my own Teddy Ruxpin story, you know. Of course, you remember the tale, but I’ll toss it out there for the edification of the masses and the asses.
You see, years ago, I babysat a kid who was a real terror. His poor (divorced) mother had gone through scores of sitters and all of them ran screaming from the bungalo. There were even tears.
Well, I wasn’t gonna’ sit still for that, so I dug in and put the ol’ noggin to work on his “therapy”.
You see, Todd (the kid) had a Teddy Ruxpin bear that he slept with at night, and he let the little talking terror play on as he drifted off into LALA.
One day, I yanked the casette tape out of Teddy’s ass and added my own message about 1/2 way through the routine. In my best “Pennywise” voice, I said, “Hello, Todd! You know, you really shouldn’t hit your mom, Todd! ‘Cause now, I’m gonna get the scissors… and you know what I’m gonna do with the scissors. Right Todd? I need a new pair of eyes for my collection!”
I then let it return to his “regularly scheduled program”. I figured that at this point, he’d be screaming bloody murder, and begging Mommy to save him. I gave the tape a little play time – enough to convince Mommy that the little bugger just had a bad dream, and then I cut back in.
“You shouldn’t have told on me, Todd. Now I’m gonna’ make things even worse. As soon as you go to sleep…”
Needless to say, he took the bear seriously. I was sitting again the next night, so the tape sorta’ vanished. Can’t leave evidence and the empty casette pocket would only serve to add to the myth. Besides, he wasn’t keeping Teddy in his room anymore. His mom was so glad that he had finally “grown up” and didn’t need his bear anymore. I was proud of the tyke, myself. I got a little misty…
😉
Well, lil’ Toddy Spanton stopped hitting Mommy, and spent a few years in therapy. I understand that he’s a well-adjusted and productive member of society these days. Although, the bear – well, I am sure he’s somewhere… out there… waiting…
Good for him!
January 7, 2009 at 11:17 AM
thats crazy! thats all i have to say!
June 6, 2009 at 1:31 PM
New Webkinz Games…
Found an interesting search engine for kids. Might help if you look for toys, games, cheats, tips, news or even auctions for favourite toys like Webkinz, ToyRUs, Brio, Fisher-Price and so on……