Imagine kids in hospitals. Yep. Scary thought. 🙁 And often it is impossible for parents, friends and relatives to stay @ their bedside 24/7. And picturing lonely kids in hospital rooms is just sad. Enter the Scottie: a small electronic doll that connects wirelessly via Bluetooth technology and a computer to the net. Kids, friends and family can now communicate and hug, even from a distance. If one kid touches his Scottie, the other kid’s Scottie will light up. If they both hold it, the Scotties will vibrate. Squeezing the Scottie gently will make the other one vibrate as well. The Scottie has a little built-in camera that reads the hues of its environment, which will be reflected in the coloring of the other Scottie. Web 2.0 @ its cutest, The Long Tail in action… Kudos!! 🙂
Waag Society is an Amsterdam based company developing new media applications for people that have not got readily access to internet and computers. For developing Scottie, they’ve partnered up with Dutch clinical institutions, the government, but also with the Parsons New School for Design.
They are testing the Scottie on 13 to 15-year-olds with have long-term diseases, and invited single fathers who do not see their kids during the summer holidays to become beta-testers as well… http://www.waag.org/project/scottie
Bluetooth
