At the 2006 NY Toy Fair, Hasbro announced a life-size robotic pony. The head, face, neck and tail motion of this "FurReal" pony was very lifelike. This toy has built in light, touch and sound sensors. While my recording mentions that the pony can actually hold a person up to 200 lbs, the shipping version states 80 lbs.
While visiting New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, I was greeted by two wonderful interactive art pieces that were created by the digital artist Daniel Rozin. Here is a video clip of one of those pieces called Circles Mirror. For more on Rozin's work, visit the website smoothware (dot) com (slash) danny
On October 16, 2004 I was invited to attend a performance by the Wiggles at Toys R Us in Times Square. The Wiggles performed in front of an audience about 200 people! The Wiggles were there to announce the launch of a new handheld toy device. In this clip, they sing the song "Everybody Clap" and Jeff falls asleep.
(Audio only) Steven Johnson, best selling author of Everything Bad Is Good For You, presents his thesis regarding the evolution of media and its ability to make us all smarter. Johnson covers changes in video games, the Internet, film, and television in his book and discusses some of his thinking in this keynote at the Association for Educational Publishing (AEP) Summit.
I'm a collector of electronic toys, especially handhelds. This video is a montage of electronic toy images that were taken from patents submitted to the US Patent Trade Office.
Scot Osterweil, a pioneer in learning and game play, shares his thoughts on the concept of "The Four Freedoms of Play." Scot Osterweil works at MIT as the Education Arcade Research Director. Here Scot presents to the Harvard Business School in Cambridge, MA in a weekly education technology forum called BrainGain.
(Audio only) An interview with Will Wright, creator of the successful video game The Sims. This interview is a discussion with Henry Jenkins of MIT's Comparative Media Studies lab and Will Wright. This presentation was recorded on May 11, 2004 at the Education Arcade, and event that focuses on how games could be used as a vehicle for learning.
On August 8, 2006, Pokemon held a giant celebration in Bryant Park in New York City to celebrate 10 years of Pokemon. It was a great event, complete with a gigantic Pikachu flying over the park that is used in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Here a clip of Pikachu dancing up on stage.
![Butterscotch - \"FurReal\" life-size Pony by Hasbro](http://img.youtube.com/vi/VYON1xZBWxY/2.jpg "Butterscotch - \\"FurReal\\" life-size Pony by Hasbro")
