The TV guided toys
Sure, he's got the cape and the fancy set of wheels, but Batman isn't the only one capable of capturing criminal masterminds--kids can do it too, thanks to a new technology that lets toys "watch" and "learn" from television just as people can. Right down to its creepy acronym, VEIL (video encoded invisible light) sounds like something plucked from a comic book.
Basically, VEIL is a new way to transmit and receive data, this time through minute variations in the brightness of a television show's picture. Our eyes can't notice the tiny changes, but specially designed gadgets can. The system's first major use is a partnership with Mattel and Warner Brothers' animated series The Batman. But the technology could ultimately be used for more than child's play, giving grown-ups challenges, prizes, and rewards as they watch TV, too.
A duo of VEIL-capable toys, a Batmobile ($55) and a Batlink Communicator ($27), allows kids to grab characters and weapons, including the Joker and the caped crusader's utility belt, from episodes of The Batman as it airs and then add them into the devices' hand-held games. After the show's over, they can battle it out with one of their newly acquired foes, and the more weapons in the kids' arsenal, the more power they have to fight with. "The biggest competition for animation is video games," explains Edward Koplar, president and CEO of VEIL Interactive Technologies. Now these foes can be friends.
Prizes. Koplar sees different opportunities to lure all ages with a range of benefits. VEIL technology will be featured in Hasbro's Wheel of Fortune Live Play ($30), scheduled for release next year. Expecting it to be a hit among the game show's AARP-ready fans, Koplar is trying to sign deals with the show's sponsors so that if a home player beats the three TV players, he can stop by a local supermarket and pick up a small prize. VEIL also could lure other adult users via a proposal for loyalty clubs for TV stations. Advertisers could embed coupons in commercials that local stations broadcast. Viewers could capture these discounts on a thin, VEIL-enabled device they get and redeem them with area merchants.
So everybody wins with VEIL--right? David Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, points out, "Our kids don't need incentives to watch TV. They need incentives to run around outside with their friends and get tired." Yet the Batman toys are part of a flood of new products that zero in on the tube, such as Mattel's Serafina ($40), a cat that watches and responds to a Barbie DVD. (The feline uses radio-wave technology instead of VEIL.) Walsh says most of these products are an improvement over passive watching. "But screen-related activities need to be a minor part of an activity diet," he adds. After all, kids, Batman wouldn't be much of a hero if he never left the Batcave.
The Guide
These new TV toys aim to engage tykes' brains.
ETO ($35, ages 5 to 11). With the electronic version of Etch A Sketch (left), you lose the satisfying shake method of starting anew, but you gain color, animation, and the ability to start a line wherever you want.
V.SMILE ($60, ages 3 to 7). If Super Mario Brothers required spelling, it might look like Alphabet Park Adventure, the "Smartridge" that comes with this system.
INTERACTV ($40, ages 3 and up). In this DVD-based learning system, popular characters like Dora the Explorer greet kids, who answer questions by touching parts of a hand-held controller. Additional DVD s cost $15. -Vicky Hallett
This story appears in the November 15, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.