There’s a company that people have been buzzing about for some time called ToyTalk, which was founded by former Pixar CTO Oren Jacob. He was also previously an EIR at August Capital.
A video was released today showing off what the company is working on and it’s pretty awesome. Basically, it’s a talking teddy bear that uses artificial intelligence and scripted voices utilizing the iPad.
The video is short, but it’s our first look:
ToyTalk calls itself a “family entertainment company,” and it wants to “create entertainment powered by characters and conversation.” Last week, I told you about a new iPad app by Alicia Keys, which led me to think about how the television no longer acts as the “babysitter” for kids growing up these days. In fact, the iPad and other technological advancements that are more interactive are starting to take over.
Not only could this be a huge space for ToyTalk to conquer, but given Jacob’s pedigree, he could do some amazing things with licensing characters from companies such as Disney, which just purchased Lucasfilm and the Star Wars series.
Teddy Ruxpin 2.0 it would seem, with Apple helping to drive the technology. That’s pretty awesome.
We’ve reached out to Jacob to hear a bit more on what the plans are, but until then, you can sign up for details when they become available on ToyTalk’s website.
[Photo credit: Flickr]
ToyTalk is a family entertainment company. Their mission is to create entertainment powered by characters and conversation.
Oren Jacob was born February 26, 1971 and grew up in Irvine, California. His interests growing up included the Apple 2 computer, video games, soccer and skiing. Oren saw Star Wars and yearned to work on similar films. In 1987, he attended Spike and Mike’s Sick & Twisted Animation Festival and saw John Lasseter’s, Luxo Jr. He had a new goal now, work at Pixar Animation Studios. In 1990 as a College of Engineering freshman at Berkeley, he saw Tin...
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