Mattel is already more techie than ever after releasing a smart doll house in 2016. This year, it turned Barbie into a hologram.
After toying with Barbie's home last year, the popular toy maker has trained its sights on Barbie herself. Mattel, however, did not make a robot costume for Barbie. Instead, the company completely discarded the physical doll and put her ghost-like image inside a fuchsia box. According to Wired, the small box will show an animated projection of the popular toy. The hologram will have the ability to respond to commands and queries of its user. This is made possible by motion-capture animation technology along with artificial intelligence.
Mattel will officially introduce Hello Barbie Hologram at the upcoming Toy Fair which will be held from Feb. 18 to 21 at the Jacob K. Javitz Convention Center in New York City. At the same event last year, Mattel introduced the Barbie Hello Dreamhouse which is an interactive version of the popular Barbie Dreamhouse. The smart dollhouse answers to commands the same way a smart device with a digital assistant like Amazon Echo and Alexa responds to its owners. For example, when a child says, "Hello, Dreamhouse, let's bake some cookies" or "Hello Dreamhouse, open the door", the AI-powered Dreamhouse will turn on the oven or flick the door open for Barbie to come in. The same technology is present in the new Barbie Hologram. The new toy will utilize a "more stylish and kid-friendly version" of other popular AIs like Alexa and Siri.
Early this year, Mattel also unveiled its own smart speaker and digital assistant named Aristotle. The $300 smart speaker will be similar to the Amazon Echo and Google Home though it will be more kid-friendly with abilities such as story-telling, playing lullabies and playing games such as "Guess the animal sound".
The Hello Barbie Hologram will drop in stores later in the year. There is no definite price tag on the toy yet though Mattel said it will sell for less than $300.
