Mattel develops speaker with personal assistant for children

Toy manufacturer Mattel is developing the Aristotle, a smart speaker with a personal assistant aimed at children. The speaker should answer questions from toddlers and preschoolers and also serve as a monitoring device for parents.

Aristotle must end up in children’s rooms where it learns the child’s voice based on a paragraph that it then has to read aloud. The device answers questions with the voice of a 25-year-old woman, but other, cartoon-like voices could be added in due course. Mattel sees many more possibilities for the speaker, among other things by combining toys such as cars with nfc tags. For example, the speaker could provide sound effects for toys.

The speaker is equipped with a camera that can send images to a parent’s smartphone via an encrypted connection, Fast Company describes. Via the app, parents can make Aristotle glow or play a song, for example to comfort a crying child.

In addition to an assistant developed by Mattel, there is a ‘parent mode’, in which the Alexa assistant from Amazon can be called up. Parents can also ask questions and order products such as diapers. The speaker should be released in June for $300.