Now, smart toys to send your messages to kids

WASHINGTON: Researchers, including one of Indian-origin, have developed smart talking toys that receive audio messages sent from parents' smartphone and play them out to the kids.

The toys enable a two-way conversation, allowing children also to record their reply.

Gauri Nanda, a designer, entrepreneur and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab Alum has developed 'Mailmen' - a new breed of smart toys that connect wirelessly with the home WIFI network to receive voice messages from anywhere in the world.

"First our team created the Mailmen, the toys that deliver your Toymail. Then we developed an app where you connect to kids you know, record them a message, and send it right from your phone to their toys," Nanda said.

Children can reply to their Toymail directly from the Mailmen and the Toymail app will store it so that it can be played back from a smartphone.

The app applies filters to make your voice sound funny. Nanda, the designer and entrepreneur behind Clocky, the alarm clock that runs away, founded the Toymail Company along with her friend Audry Hill.

"Part of what drove us in creating the Mailmen was this desire to be able to say whatever might be our minds to the kids we love when we aren't around to say it in person," said Nanda.

"And the reality is that most parents are away from their kids more often than they would like, sometimes all day, sometimes days at a time. Toymail is for them," she said.

Also, the smart toys never run out of things to say. A message is sent to everyone's Mailmen each morning. The Mailmen will greet children by name and then sing a song, say a little known fact, or read an inspiring quote.