Google Patents Eerie, Internet-Connected Stuffed Animals for Kids [View all]

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Source: Slate

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Between targeted advertising and tailored search results, you may feel like Google knows too much about you already. This new patent isn’t going to help. Filed in 2012 and published last week, “interactive electronics that support social cues” are devices that react to the voice commands and movements of children. They’re essentially toys—but super-creepy ones.

The idea behind the patent is to coordinate Internet of Things devices like smart thermostats and TVs using an approachable figurine. “An anthropomorphic device, perhaps in the form factor of a doll or toy, may be configured to control one or more media devices,” the patent explains. When triggered by a voice command or movement, “the anthropomorphic device may aim its gaze at the source of the social cue.”

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This type of product isn’t unprecedented. There are already personal assistants that are always on, like the Amazon Echo, and interactive social devices for the home, like Jibo the family robot. But Google sure knows how to write a weird patent:

The anthropomorphic device may be a doll or toy that resembles a human, an animal, a mythical creature, or an inanimate object. The anthropomorphic device may have a head (or a body part resembling a head) with objects representing eyes, ears, and a mouth. ... By making ‘eye contact’ with the user, the user is presented with a familiar form of social interaction in which two parties look at each other while communicating.

Read more: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2015/05/26/google_x_patents_internet_of_things_toys_for_kids.html

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I'm trying to decide if this would have helped or hindered Josh Duggar.

Both?

Creepy, Google. Creepy.