One
creative, technology "toy" that's being
introduced this year to support these ndings is Chappet,
a 2-inch, round yellow speaker button that's controlled by
a smartphone app. Chappet allows parents or caregivers to
interact with a child through a stuffed animal that adorns
the button by supplying their own voice via voice or text
chat. Chappet can also support more than 1,000
prerecorded phrases, features 20 prerecorded songs and
stories and its auto chat function can mimic the words a
child shares with it in conversation, allowing children to
interact with their toys in an entirely new way.
"You can be in another room or right next to them on the
couch," said Naoki Ono, Chappet Development Team
Leader. "They won't know it's you unless you tell them
because Chappet allows parents or loved ones to become
the voice of the child's plush toy that involves fun,
responsive, back-and-forth social and creative
interactions. Children also will laugh aloud when they
nd out their best friend plush is mimicking them."