#CES2011 — ViNCi Tablet: The Tablet for Babies and Young Children.

“The tablet for babies”? It may sound crazy to give a baby who may not even be able to walk an electronic that normally costs many hundreds of dollars and is incredible fragile. But the ViNCi tablet developed by Rullingnet is something different.

Rocco: The energy generating, resourceful horse of course.

Parents near and far have probably heard their kid ask for a new toy upon entering into a store at least half a billion times. Most times they’re met with a quick and sharp “No!”. Denying the kid doesn’t phase you in the slightest because god knows you kneed another damn cheap plastic toy riddling your floors. If your child happens to ask for “Rocco”, you may want to pause before you sharply reply with a “No” the next time.

To start off, Rocco is a rocking horse that generates it’s own energy. Pretty novel concept. But why does a rocking horse need electricity to start with? To power the light up ears of course. Ok, so now we’ve got a gimmicky childrens toy — as if that’s anything new. But wait, there’s one more step. Those light up ears can be yanked out and used as flashlights. Now that’s ingenuity. Seriously. A rocking horse, energy generator and tool for cases of emergency. Ya, that’s awesome.

Unfortunately, my soon to be baby seed won’t be playing on this in the near term. Not because they won’t be able to get on and off but because Rocco is noting more than the dream in designers Aaron Tsui, Irina Kozlovskaya, Jasen Mehta, and Sergio Silva’s heads. If Rocco were to come to market however, I can see a pretty huge following behind him. I mean what’s not to like. Money saver, kid pleaser, and overall cool looking are pretty good reasons to buy.

Here’s to hoping…

Coolest-Gadgets

Twoddler gives your baby a voice. Tweets his playtime habits with ease.

Interested in genealogy and observing how traits and characteristics are passed down from generation to generation? Things such as build, eye color, skin tone, etc. are the most obvious shared traits. As the world becomes increasingly digital however, we should start noticing within the next couple of decades “digital traits” passed along. Not sure what I mean? A perfect example of “building” such traits into your children and starting your kids young so that they’re technologically fluent by the time they are potty trained can be seen in the “Twoddler”. No it’s not some invented age category to make children in between younger ages feel better about themselves. Instead, it is a unique social networking toy for toddlers and younger children.

Operation is simple being, a device targeted for those of an age who can’t read and have the attention span of the dogs in Pixar’s “Up” (Squirrel!), I would hope that using it wouldn’t cause toddlers to pull out what little hair they have. When your toddler pushes the various buttons and plays with the multitude of turney things and noise makers, Arduino sensors on board capture the data and transmit it wirelessly (via ZiggBee)to a computer which does all of the heavy lifting. The data from the toy is then turned into random yet tactful tweets that mom and dad can follow. To give you a taste, a couple examples of the tweets the Twoddler can send — when say, pressing a picture of mom — include:

• @mommy_bobby Bobby misses mommy and looks forward playing with her this evening

• @mommy_bobby Bobby is having a temper tantrum and wants mommy home now.

Is the whole concept and idea corny? Eh, a little. But at the same time I’m left thinking: “Where was the twoddler when I was a kid?” It’s a cool device that should at least keep baby entertained for months and mom and dad for at least a few days — after which the constant @mom’s will drive you insane. Still, you have to appreciate the attempt at reaching an untapped market. What other geeky gadgets do you think would benefit those under 5?

Neatorama > Wired — GadgetLab > Twoddler