<i>"Furby is comprised of a few primary components -- a microprocessor covered in black resin (to protect Tiger Electronics' intellectual property)"</i><p>Wishful thinking. It's chip-on-board technology, which lowers the cost of the final product. In the toy business, every penny counts.<p>Anyone can decap a chip package these days, the COB resin is not any more secure.<p><a href="https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-chip-on-boards-are-made" rel="nofollow">https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-chip-on-boards-are-...</a><p><a href="http://www.ue.com.hk/index.php/Saving_Cost_-_Bare_Die_Assembly" rel="nofollow">http://www.ue.com.hk/index.php/Saving_Cost_-_Bare_Die_Assemb...</a>
Disappointed that it doesn't lip-sync (like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRxhgxH6FUI" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRxhgxH6FUI</a>)
Is there a product like this just for kids: a furry, friendly, interactive, mobile, voice-based connection to the internet? It could be an early learning tool (and source of great annoyance and surprise hilarity). Kids could learn to make apps for their wrapped Alexa, apps that help them help themselves and their friends, parents, etc...<p>[I am now imagining the <i>Star Trek</i> episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" where all tribbles are Alexa wrappers... X_x save me!]
Cute. Playing the video constantly had my own Amazon Echo answering the same questions.<p>It's not clear how much the Alexa Voice Service would cost in a commercial product?
I wonder if the finished product is smart enough to distinguish between Alexa "speaking" and playing audio. It would be really annoying to constantly hear those gears moving while listening to music.<p>On the other hand, I'd love to code the pi to randomly make the eyes blink and move on occasion.
I'm interested in how the author got the sound working. I would have thought that external usb dacs would work just fine, as they seem to be plug and play compatible with just about everything, but apparently that isn't the case. Could somebody elaborate?
Sounds like a great way to train children to interact with and trust corporate mass surveillance because it's "cute" and "fun".