Bring your colourful clay creations to life with Play Doh Touch!

I remember countless hours playing with Play Doh as a kid, making monsters, strange hybrid animals, and yummy food (presumably for my brother and I to share with our monsters and animals).

The pure joy of building things with my bare hands is something that sure has continued throughout my life, and it's exciting to find out that __kids now have another way to explore their physical Play Doh creations - in the virtual world!

The Play Doh Touch Shape to Life Studio kit is a new offering in the 'app-enabled' toy space which allows __kids to bring their Play Doh masterpieces into an app and interact with it.

Using an iPad, you can scan the Play Doh creatures and objects created with the kit, and these can then be used within the Touch app; your clay creatures can run and jump and move about, and you can decorate the environment with other clay creations.

What I think is especially useful is that on top of the fine motor skills and imaginative play that Play Doh enables and encourages, the Shape to Life kit also helps introduce digital skills that no doubt will be required as children grow older; using a touch screen, using a digital camera/scanner, and navigating a virtual environment. There's even a kind of 'design process' if you care to think about it in that way: exploring and making a physical prototype, capturing and creating a virtual model, and then finally, using this model to complete tasks.

Could this toy be a perfect start for the next generation of engineers and designers? At the very least, it looks like a whole lot of fun!

The Play Doh Touch Shape to Life Studio is available at the Apple Store

See the future of wearable technology with these smart glasses

If you know someone who loves their glasses, or you’re a stylish and bespectacled guy or gal yourself, you may want to gather ‘round and take a closer look at this latest development in eyewear.

Feast your long- and/or short-sighted eyes on these smart new glasses!

Vue | Your Everyday Smart Glasses from Antony Bui on Vimeo.

Are my eyes deceiving me? The Vue smart glasses look like a dream come true! It allows you to answer calls, listen to music, track your fitness activity, listen to navigation instructions, charge wirelessly when you’re asleep, connect to other smart devices… and most importantly, correct your vision with prescription lenses.

The gesture control for the various functions might make you look like you’ve got some strange compulsive behaviours, but at least you’d look cool doing so; they come in two styles - Classic and Trendy - in a few colours with a few trims (plain chocolate brown for me, thanks!)

The feature I’m most excited about (other than being able to see clearly) would have to be the ‘bone conduction’ speakers, a different sound transmission method, removing the need for earphones or headphones entirely. I wonder how it would sound? And if you could have it remove unwanted noises.

By kickstarting a revolution in smart eyewear (they’re not the first, but they’re certainly quite functional, fashionable and visually normal-looking), the day is nearing when we could be walking around with Heads-Up Displays on our glasses, making us feel a bit like Tony Stark, wearing fashionable versions of Scouters from Dragon Ball Z. [link: http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Scouter As long as future augmented reality apps don’t get on the side of freaky and intense.

I think these Vue specs are the way of the future and a logical next step in smart devices. If you’re a wearer of glasses and a lover of technology, this may just be the best new addition to your collection of gadgets. And even if the battery runs out, well, at least you can still see clearly.

Would you get these Vue Smart Glasses? Find out more about the Vue here.

Oh come all ye...what now? This A.I. composed Christmas carol is seriously wrong!

Love them or hate them, Christmas carols are an integral part of the holiday season. From Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer to The Little Drummer Boy we all know the usual Christmas classics.

But here’s a Christmas carol that you’ve never heard before…and you may never want to hear again!

A madcap bunch of researchers in Toronto have decided to dedicate themselves to furthering the possibilities of artificial intelligence (A.I.), by teaching a computer how to compose a Christmas carol. They played 100 hours of Christmas carols to the computer alongside showing it a bunch of Christmassy photos in order to ‘teach it’ all about Christmas songs. The result is…well, just plain weird.

Some example lyrics:

“I swear it’s Christmas Eve. I hope that is what you say…A Christmas tree. There are lots and lots and lots of flowers.”

Oh come all ye…what now???

Nightmare Machine: Artificial Intelligence is now learning how to scare us

What do you get when you take artificial intelligence and add some horror? A Nightmare Machine of course!

Warning: some creepiness up ahead!

What exactly is Nightmare Machine? No, it's not a rampaging haunted robot coming to get us (although that would be spooky). It's a computer program that's learned to use photos of things and turn them into something creepy.

Scientists from MIT have used deep-learning algorithms to manipulate faces and famous places. They are trying to answer the question, “Can Machines learn to scare us?” with some terrifying results.

The program uses existing pictures, and dials up the spookiness a few notches by adding things that humans think are scary. It looks like it's been taking already distorted faces, added some blotches of blood-red colour and unkempt hair, and added (or removed!) misshapen facial features. If you want to aid the program in identifying what's scary or not scary - it can learn from your input too!

The famous landmarks are given a bit of a different treatment, They are re-done in a particular learned 'style’. For example, there's the Colosseum in a 'Haunted House' style, a 'Slaughterhouse' -style Taj Mahal, and the Sydney Opera House as a 'Ghost Town'.

Now, imagine the scary faces in these spooky places and you've got a recipe for ultimate creepiness!

There's even a fun timeline which explores key points in history where artificial intelligence and creepy things have coincidentally crossed paths. I guess the time for machines to learn how to scare us would eventually happen, is now the time?

Imagine what would be achieved by continuing to combine technology and horror entertainment. How about combining a computer that learns what each individual finds scary, and tailors a virtual or augmented reality experience based on someone's fears - now that would be scary!

It's a bit of Halloween fun, but the scaredy-cat in me is asking; should we really be teaching artificial intelligence how to take advantage of our deepest fears?

These smart earbuds can turn down the sound of a screaming baby!

Sitting near a screaming baby on a long haul flight is the stuff of nightmares. While many of us can be sympathetic, no one actually wants to listen to that for hours on end. But what if you had headphones that could actually turn down the sound of that screaming baby?

This is the promise of augmented audio, and the good news is, it’s not just a sci-fi fantasy – it’s already here.

Augmented audio allows users to filter, remix, alter, and even mute sounds via wireless earbuds. Unlike noise cancelling headphones, augmented audio earbuds can filter out specific sounds and actually turn down the volume of the things that you don’t want to hear, without affecting the sounds that you do want to hear. From a noisy office environment to the sounds of a screaming baby, augmented audio can help you choose what you want do and don’t want to listen to.

So, how do they work?

A leading augmented audio product is the Here One. These wireless augmented audio earbuds conisist of both a speaker and a microphone. The microphone ‘listens’ to the sounds surrounding the user and processes information about the soundwaves which allows specific sounds to be amplified or muted. The Here One works via Bluetooth with a smartphone app that also allows its wearer to listen to a perfect blend of whatever ambient sound they choose to listen (while filtering out that which you don’t want to hear), plus music, podcast, phone call or smart assistant. The Hear One promises that its earbuds can be worn all day so that there’s no need to remove your headphones to interact with the world.

Augmented audio has the power to change the way that we interact with technology in our everyday lives by making the interface between human and machine more seamless. Doppler Labs, the people behind the Hear One, have ambitious goals when it comes to wearable tech -

“We believe that audio and voice will be a key part of the next wave of computing. We believe that by moving CPUs, sensors, speakers, and mics onto the body—and specifically into the ears—we can make computing more immersive, more human, and get you out of your screen. We believe in order to achieve this, we must create products that are worn proudly, as much a function of fashion as a piece of technology.

Just as Microsoft put “a computer on every desk” and Apple put a computer in every pocket, our mission is to put a computer, speaker, and mic in every ear. “

So how much money would you expect to pay to be able to filter out the sound of a screaming baby?

The Hear One is available to pre-order for US$299.99. They’re shipping to the U.S. and Europe from the end of this year and will be expanding to other countries shortly thereafter.

What sounds would you want to filter out from your life?

The SNOO Crib sounds like magic for sleep deprived parents!

When it comes to newborns, it doesn’t take much to get the attention of exhausted parents – simply mention the words “more sleep” and they’ll be all over it!

SNOO is a new product on the market that will prick up parental ears the world over – it’s a baby crib that promises to be a game changer in the sleep stakes, at just the touch of a button. Take me back 12 years and I would have signed up, no matter what the cost!

Dr. Harvey Karp, a well-known American paediatrician, is the founder and CEO of the Happiest Baby, a company devoted to smart-tech and parenting solutions. He invented the SNOO crib in collaboration with an industrial designer, and engineers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). 

Dr. Karp also happens to be one of the world’s most renowned baby and sleep experts, with one of his breakthrough discoveries known as the 5 S’s (swaddling, shushing, swinging, sucking, and side position), which he used as principles upon which to create the SNOO.

Perfecting the SNOO took five years of development, and used over 200 babies in its testing phase, but at last it’s here. It’s billed as the world’s first ‘smart sleeper’ because it monitors, responds and soothes babies without your input.

The secret is apparently in the way the SNOO replicates the white noise and motion they enjoyed 24/7 before they were born. The SNOO is able to choose the best white noise (soft rain for putting it to sleep or womb sounds if it’s crying), as well as the most appropriate motion (a slow swing for sleeping or a faster jiggle for periods of unrest). This leads to babies that settle back to sleep, cry less, and sleep more, which is clearly a massive win for parents.

The SNOO also has a great design aesthetic mixed with its functionality. The mesh walls are for safety and breathability, but they also add a modern minimalist look to the crib. It comes with a fitted sheet and three SNOO Sacks, which are all made of organic cotton. SNOO Sacks are used for the ‘5-second swaddle’ and they safely anchor the baby into the bed and keep them on their back all night, which prevents rolling over, and therefore makes it one of the safest baby beds ever made.

At a price tag of US$1,160, and given it’s only suitable for a babies up to six months of age, the SNOO may seem an extravagance to some, and a necessity to others.  It’s currently only available in the USA, but it won’t be long before parents in other parts of the world get their turn to claw back some sleep and sanity. 

SNOO has several influential parent investors, including Jessica Biel, Justin Timberlake, and Scarlett Johansson, but if that’s not enough to make you feel confident about forking over your ‘hard earned’, it also comes with a 30-day returns policy. So the days of trying to replicate Johnson & Johnson ads (where the baby falls asleep so effortlessly with a small smile on its face – huh, that never happened for me!) may actually have some basis in reality soon

This epic RC truck puts your scale models to shame

As dads, it's likely we've all had some kind of affinity for a good scale model. Be it a favourite jet fighter, iconic 60s car, famous landmark, or sci-fi spaceship, at some point in our boyhood (and maybe into adulthood), surely a scale model has made its way on to our shelves (or man caves if you're lucky enough!)

If you're a fan of some big (but not too big) big-boy's toys, check out this guy's insane remote-controlled truck, complete with, well, everything he could dream up and create!

How's this for a man-pram?

The epic, masive RC truck is a 1:4 scale Peterbilt 359, crafted to perfection. It's creator, Luca Bordin, has even added different trailer options such as a sound system

;

and an actual trailer for transporting small tractors

How awesome is that?

I love being able to work on hobby projects with my kids. It's definitely a perk of being a dad, having little hands share in the building of something. Building models bring out our inner child, and sharing that part of us with our own children is a great way to relate to their sense of wonder and curiosity, which we may have lost from 'growing up'. Also, working together means valuable time together, and that's what matters the most despite sticky glue-hands and broken or lost pieces.

You may even inspire your __kids to one day work on a full-scale version of a model; the real thing. They are after all our future designers, artists, engineers, and architects. Who knows, you may have a future spaceship designer in your family waiting for their chance to reach the stars!

What kind of models do you like working on? 

Fear or cheer? Spook-tacular new digital decorations that will ‘sleigh’ you!

When it comes to decorations for special occasions, nothing will ever beat the thrill of helium balloons, paper streamers, colourful tinsel and cherished ornaments – they’re the things that make childhood magical, and often hold fond memories (er, except if you’re my eldest daughter who is still scarred by the sound of a dozen balloons bursting simultaneously at her 2nd birthday party!)

With the technological age well and truly upon us, however, it’s inevitable that a new way to decorate for parties, events and holiday seasons has been invented, and it looks like a lot of fun. Slide to the side party supply shops, because digital is here!

American company AtmosFX Digital Decorations has invented a product that means anyone can turn their home, office, or other location into a dynamic, one-of-a-kind atmospheric experience with the use of professional animation – and it’s mess-free! Simply choose a digital download or a DVD, hook it up to a projector or television set and you’re set to go. The only hard part will be deciding whether to scare or delight your friends, family and neighbours.

Whatever time of year you choose, no matter if it’s an indoor or outdoor environment, you can project awesome, realistic holographic illusions and surface projections onto windows, walls, floors, ceilings or monitors.

The company currently produce two ranges of digital decorations – the largest is called AtmosFEARfx and is perfect for Halloween decorating, trick-or-treaters, and horror-themed parties. There are 13 AtmosFEARfx sequences to choose from, ranging from family-friendly scary content to realistic horror-themed content. With titles including ‘Ghostly Apparitions’, ‘Witching Hour’, ‘Zombie Invasion’, ‘Unliving Portraits’, ‘Nightstalkers’, ‘Creepy Crawlies’ and ‘Shades of Evil’, each one provides a thrilling, haunting experience.

Imagine standing outside a house and seeing a ghostly apparition in the windows, zombies clawing to get out or a possessed family staring down at you. How about seeing a character hover in mid-air in the doorway of a house or in the front yard. There’s some fun to be had here at the expense of scaredy cats like me, and some of the ‘realistic’ rated scenes freaked me out, so I’d tread carefully when choosing anything that will be viewed by children. There are unforgettable events, and there are unforgettable events – you want the one that won’t culminate in a lifetime of paying a psychologist.

If you’d rather play it safe, there’s the delightful AtmosCHEERfx range, which focuses on the Christmas period, as well as many other celebrations such as birthdays, anniversaries and New Year’s Eve. You can create a snowy Christmas wonderland or ramp up the anticipation with a surprise visit from Santa. There are also medleys of colourful balloons, confetti, streamers and dazzling displays of fireworks to make festive occasions even more enjoyable. And with a variety of customisable messages and sound effects, they are perfect for use year after year, with the possibilities limited only by your imagination.

Their website provides excellent ‘how to’ videos, and they also sell a range of equipment called AtmosGEAR, which is comprised of products intended to enhance the digital decoration experience. There are also tips and tricks videos that show you how to set up your decorations and maximise their effects (hint: it’s probably worth buying the premium window projection material if you’re planning to project the digital images onto your windows – it looks incredible!)

So the next time you find yourself with an occasion to eat, drink and be scary/merry, maybe consider putting away the stepladder, the sticky tape and the streamers, and get inspired to decorate the modern way!

This is what it sounds like when a computer writes human music

For almost a century people have been fascinated with using electronic machines to make music. Artists like Bruce Haack, Kraftwerk, and Daft Punk have embraced machines as an essential theme, with their creations being a composition by humans, but sounding like it was performed by robots.

But what if things went the other way around? What would it sound like if artificial intelligence composed music in the style of humans?

What the? Yep, this is what it sounds like when a computer composes pop music in the style of the Beatles. Titled “Daddy’s Car”, it’s kinda beautiful and creepy at the same time. Although it was composed by a program, it was arranged and produced by (a human) composer, Benoît Carré.

The Flow Machines software trawls through a database and 'studies' artists' back catalogues, figuring out what makes them unique. It then composes a melody and harmony based on what it's learned from its searching and analysing. Pretty crazy, right?

It's not the first time a computer program has been asked to get creative. Artificial intelligence has written a short film, and can generate strange art too

I can only wonder what the future of creativity might be like. Will our kids' music, painting, photography and design stand a chance or will their creative efforts be made irrelevant by future machines?

Like DJ Lance Rock jamming with Plex, I hope the future is a peaceful and creative co-existence with our robot buddies!

App review: TMNT Half-Shell Heroes

Do you have young TMNT fans in your household, ninja-flipping around like their favourite Turtle bro and claiming to be the biggest pizza-tarian of them all? This new app might be able to satisfy their hunger for some more TMNT goodness!

Official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Half Shell Heroes (by Nickelodeon) Trailer - iOS / Android

The story mode takes players through an adventure with the Turtles, from the sewers to the streets and beyond. Along the way they meet some familiar friends and foes from the series - my sons were really excited to see them in a different setting!

The storyline is wrapped around variations of four core activities or mini-games:

- a Fruit Ninja - like game where you tap or slash the enemy M.O.U.S.E.R.S and Foot-Bots (and avoid smoke bombs).

- a pipe puzzle where you rotate and connect sections of a pipe to make sure water can flow through.

- a cannon-style game where you shoot down the enemies with a pizza launcher (A bit like Angry Birds, or if you're old school, the Worms series or Scorched Earth

- a pattern-matching puzzle which requires players to input the correct sequence of coloured shapes to 'hack' the Kraang's shields.

Targeted at pre-Kindergarten aged players, the mini-games have elements of STEM concepts like physics and pattern recognition. These skills are great to learn for any future hero!

My 4 and 5-year old sons found the story mode a breeze. However, they were still very much entertained by the four core mini games available as stand-alone challenges in the Dojo, keen to improve their high scores. Players can also unlock achievements and badges by going back to the story mode and completing goals.

I'm really impressed with the quality of the graphics and audio. The voice over instructions and visual cues are also well thought out, and even help give an overview of menu items and how to navigate them, which is especially useful for younger players who are just starting out with gaming.

Overall it's a fantastic game that hits the mark for the intended age group. I wish there was an unlockable 'big __kids mode' with a more intense level of difficulty...

TMNT: Half Shell Heroes is available for iOS and Android

'Sit with us' is just what our kids need

How could anyone forget the feeling of desperately seeking out friends to eat with at lunchtime?

Nothing used to fill me with dread more. Sometimes it was being the new kid, and sometimes it was falling out of favour with friends, it felt the same. That churning feeling in the pit of my stomach still haunts me.

Now I’d love to eat lunch alone with a good book. But as a teenager, the prospect used to be horrifying. What would people think?

That’s why I love the new ‘Sit With Us’ app developed by American teenager Natalie Hampton. She was inspired to create it after sitting alone for a whole year during year 7.

She now has loads of friends and a secure social circle, but wanted to reach out to __kids who don’t.

This is how it works: __kids become ambassadors in the school and have an open ‘sit with us’ policy. kids can check on their phones to see who is hosting an ‘open lunch’ and go and seek them out discreetly with the use of the app.

“This way it’s very private. It’s through the phone. No one else has to know,” Natalie explained to Huffpost. “And you know that you’re not going to be rejected once you get to the table.”

It’s a cause close to my heart at the moment. A family member has just pulled her bright and lovely 10 year old out of school because of bullying. It’s hard to fathom just how cruel little girls can be. And their parents don’t seem to realise the impact their daughters are having. Or don’t care.

Grace has been mercilessly excluded, teased and tormented for years. It seems no one has her back, with teachers blaming her ‘over reactions’ for enflaming the situation.

Grace has Asperger’s and is incredibly bright. She stands taller than the other kids in her class. She basically stands out like a sore thumb.

One day her uniqueness will be celebrated, but right now she just needs a friend.

‘Sit With Us’ would be a fantastic tool for Australian schools to implement. Not just to look after the vulnerable kids, but to also build community spirit and show kids how to treat each other.

School can be such a lonely place for so many kids, but there are also a lot of wonderful leaders in fellow students out there who would love the opportunity to make a real difference.

How much would you pay for a doll that could help your baby sleep soundly?

As I sit at my desk to write about the Lulla doll, it’s dawned on me that I’m suffering a serious case of ‘baby gadget’ envy. It’s almost severe enough to make me want another baby of my own, just so I can go out and buy this product and see if it actually works. (The key word here is ‘almost’, because my desire to do something fun in the next 18 years outweighs my intense hankering to test whether the doll is a gift from the Gods for exhausted parents, or just another impressive-sounding product that ends up behind the couch in the playroom, covered in dust and bits of dried Playdoh).

What’s so amazing about this soft toy? The Lulla doll is the invention of Icelandic mother-of-two, Eyrún Eggertsdóttir, who studied psychology and learnt the numerous positive effects that being physically close to a caregiver has on babies. Once Eyrún became a parent, she quickly discovered what her studies never taught her – how exhausting it was to constantly nurse a baby so it would sleep longer and be more settled. She desperately needed a break, and thus came up with the idea of a doll that mimicked the soothing sounds of a mother.

It’s a well-known fact that when babies hear the sound of their mother’s breathing and heartbeat they will tune into them, which stabilises their own respiratory functions and means they are less likely to have sleep apnoea episodes. Stable and calm babies naturally fall asleep more quickly and stay asleep for longer, meaning parental sanity can be saved – many of us out there will know the feeling of being reduced to tears of exhaustion by our sweet babies, whose sleep time comprises of a 45-minute catnap, the first 35 minutes of which are in our arms. Imagine a world where that doesn’t happen any more, or at least not as often. Now that’s something I would pay big bucks for!

The Lulla may not look like anything special – it’s a fairly non-descript plush toy in all honesty – but three years of development meant its features are deliberately unisex and unirace, in order to fit into families all across the world. Cleverly, the mother or primary caregiver can also imprint her smell on the doll by wearing it close to her for a day or two.

As with most things in life, this wasn’t a solo project, and input from doctors, nurses, midwives, and engineers was crucial to the doll’s development, as well as the contribution from one very special woman named Gudrun, who may well find herself with ecstatic mothers fan-girling her across the globe now the Lulla has been such a success. What’s Gudrun’s claim to fame? Well, to ensure the sounds that Lulla emits are as natural as possible, Gudrun – a yoga teacher and mother of four – was hired to do the professional breathing, and she got an excellent deal it would seem, being able to go into a deep meditative state for two hours and call that ‘work’. (I’d like to be a professional breather too thanks, or a professional cake eater … whichever, I’m not fussed).

Gudrun’s heartbeat and breathing were recorded, and when the doll’s belly is pressed it will loop without interruption for eight hours. That’s eight hours of potential sleep people! Imagine all those well-rested parents out there who no longer struggle through their day with minds that function at the pace of two sloths. It’s no surprise then that the first production run of 5,000 dolls (an Indiegogo crowd funding campaign) sold out, and subsequently sparked bidding wars on eBay, which saw the dolls going for up to $350 each compared to their original price of around $99.

The Lulla has already received several awards for innovation, and the anecdotal feedback from parents that it’s made a positive difference for the whole family has ensured the doll is selling out as fast as they can make them, especially it seems in Australia. The good news is they are open for pre-orders again and you can get one here. 

From a practical point of view, the Lulla has been designed with the soundbox in a pocket on back that is easily removable to change the batteries or wash the doll, although some parents have been known to buy multiple Lullas, so as to never be without their saving grace.

Personally, I think if you can ignore the fact it sounds eerily like Darth Vader (only minus the “Luke, I am your father!” bit and with more prolonged heavy breathing, in fact eight hours of it), then I reckon you’ll be onto a winner. Let me know how you go so I don’t have to have another baby myself just to test it out! (Yes, my baby gadget obsession is real).

Futuristic baby sling - awesome or ridiculous?

As more of my friends are having children, it’s great to be able to have a chat about parenting stuff and not feel left out. It’s fun to trade ‘war stories’, to trade legitimate advice from actual experience, or at least be a sounding board for a new parent or parent-to-be. I’m especially proud I can confidently recall what to do when the baby poo-‘splosion strikes.

Actually, I secretly like conversing about daily parenting gear; what bags work well with carrying baby stuff and gadgets together, which cars are the most family-friendly, and what kind of new technologies are out there for __kids and parents alike.

Seriously though, it’s pretty crazy out there with the number of options available for travelling around with your mini-me’s. There’s pram-bikes, stroller-skates, and even adult-sized ones you can test-ride yourself!

Now there’s a new baby carrier design you might be able recommend to a fashion-forward (or -sideways), techno-geek mum or dad:

 

My design for a baby carrier that can be used as a safe baby seat #finalproject #industrialdesign #baby #babycarrier @shenkar_college #graduation

A photo posted by Shir Selinson (@shirselin) on Jul 13, 2016 at 5:51am PDT

Created by Shir Selinson from the Shenkar College of Engineering and Design, it appears to be a convertible baby sling and baby rocker/carrier, that could fold down to easily fit in a bag. It looks to me like the kind of baby tech my __kids might be use to bring the future grandkids around in.

 

My design for a baby carrier that can be used as a safe baby seat #finalproject #industrialdesign #baby #babycarrier @shenkar_college #graduation

A photo posted by Shir Selinson (@shirselin) on Jul 13, 2016 at 5:54am PDT

What do you think? Is it awesome or ridiculous? Would you want to be spotted carrying bub in this futuristic baby sling?

Find out more about the sling, and check out some of the other clever stuff designed by Shir Selinson.

TippyTalk – The app helping non-verbal children with autism and their families

Over the past decade or so, the dialogue around autism has opened up, and the stigma of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has greatly dissipated. Many well-known and well-loved fictional characters and real-life people and families are living with ASD – think Don from the worldwide best-selling novel ‘The Rosie Project’ or Hollywood director Tim Burton (self-diagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome), or actors John Travolta and Sylvester Stallone, who are both fathers of sons with autism.

Despite the wider social acceptance of ASD, the fact remains that living with autism as either a child or their carer still presents enormous challenges. Add the element of being non-verbal, and you have extra difficulty and frustration. When a non-verbal child struggles to communicate their desires, needs or emotions, their parents and caregivers can be left with feelings of frustration, guilt and inadequacy as they try to fulfil the natural instinct to help their child be a contented and included member of the community.

Irishman Rob Laffan was one of those parents – his 5-year-old daughter Sadie has non-verbal autism, and when she tried to communicate with her mother or father it would often end in communication breakdown and meltdowns on behalf of an understandably frustrated Sadie. They often used an aid much like a picture book (known as a Picture Exchange Communication System, or PECS for short), where Sadie could point to what she wanted, needed or felt, but this came with limitations. Firstly, it relied on the non-verbal user being able to take the PECS to the person they wished to communicate with, which is only possible if they are in the same location. Secondly, such a tool can get lost or damaged, and perhaps most importantly, it can’t be easily updated or personalised.

After spending countless hours with his wife laminating, updating and replacing pictures for Sadie’s PECS, Rob came up with the idea for an app that takes the idea of a PECS, but utilises the technology available today and combines it with the electronic devices that are found in most homes – tablets. His breakthrough app – called TippyTalk – can be used on both Android and Apple platforms, making it accessible to an enormous worldwide market. That’s a lot of families who can potentially be helped by TippyTalk.

TippyTalk works by translating pictures that the non-verbal child selects on their tablet into text messages, which are then sent to a family member or caregiver’s phone or tablet. The adult can then respond immediately, thus helping to circumvent communication breakdowns. One bonus that Rob has discovered is that with each message he receives from his daughter, he gains a further insight into her personality, which he finds deepens his relationship with her.

Barriers of a physical nature are also broken down with the use of the app, allowing the non-verbal user to contact a loved one no matter where in the world they are at the time, as well as letting them communicate with two or more people at once.

TippyTalk also aids language development, with a function permitting a parent or caregiver to record their voice over the top of each picture in the app, which reinforces the words for the child. The app can be customised for each user, so no two units are likely to be the same, and control is given back to the adult who can easily capture images familiar to their child and program the app to suit.

Rob’s measure of success for TippyTalk sounds modest, but is in fact mammoth in its influence on the lives of families: he wishes for his invention to facilitate social inclusion and independent choice for non-verbal people.

As the medical and scientific worlds continue to delve into the causes and possible intervention options for autism, TippyTalk provides an immediate solution that allows people with non-verbal ASD to communicate with whomever they chose, instantly, at anytime and anywhere. Simple concept, massive impact.

Digital killed the video star: why it's ok to cry when old tech dies

Last week’s news that there will no more VCR players being manufactured in the world may have caused somewhat of a non-plussed reaction in some….“Huh? They still make VCR players?” 

via GIPHY

Yet for others, this eventual succumbing of the VCR player to the inevitable march of progress represents the horrifying fact that we, like this once cutting-edge tech, will soon become redundant in the world!

via GIPHY

When the last VCR player rolled off the production line at the end of July, it provided us with a mark in time, a time to pause and reflect on what once was and will never be again.

Never again will children have to eagerly wait an absolute age for their video cassette to rewind. Never again will we need expert skills to adjust tracking on the not-so-trusty VHS cassette as it struggled to get a stable picture. And never again will any child know the devastating feeling of loss upon realising that they forgot to ‘unpause’ after the ad break, hence losing a good chunk of the taping of their favourite show. 

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For many of us of a certain age, the VCR was the first time we could watch what we wanted to watch when we wanted to watch it in our own homes. Back in the day when viewing on demand involved a lot of hard work and forward planning.

I still vividly remember the day we found out our neighbours had bought a VCR player. The entire ‘hood was agog and we all piled into their lounge room to watch Grease. This spanking new machine even had a remote control – that was attached to the player by a long cord!

This somewhat temperamental medium could bring us the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. Who remembers the joy of sliding to the VCR player just in time to hit record on your favourite show?  And who remembers the utter devastation felt when the tape starting glitching and making that funny ‘mnumm mmmm’ sound when you’d watched it too many times? The VHS cassette just not able to cope with the huge amount of love you felt for your favourite movie (I’m looking at you, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun).

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So, farewell funny VCR. You were the best of times and you were the worst of times. You are a relic from a bygone ear, and with your passing we reflect on our own mortality. Don’t be ashamed to shed a tear when old tech dies, because really, you’re crying because you’re getting really, really old.

What’s your best VCR story?

Are You Guilty of Sharenting?

Sharenting: the practice of sharing photos and details about your __kids online is almost a ubiquitous part of being a parent these days. In fact, if you’re a parent, and your social media feed is devoid of your kid’s antics, people could indeed start to worry.

But does this practice need a serious rethink?

In Austria an 18 year-old girl is suing her parents for ‘violation of privacy’ after they have refused to remove over 500 photos of her childhood from their Facebook account.

The girl, who can’t be named for privacy reasons told Austria’s Heute newspaper,

“They knew no shame and no limits,” she said. “They didn't care if I was sitting on the toilet or lying naked in the cot, every moment was photographed and made public.”

Her parents who have over 700 Facebook friends have refused her numerous requests to remove the photos from their account. So, in the first case of its kind in Austria, she took legal action as soon as she turned eighteen.

“I’m tired of not being taken seriously by my parents,” she said.

This landmark case, which will be heard in November this year, could change the landscape of social media. The teenager’s lawyer, Michael Rami, believes that his young client has an excellent chance of winning.

While the legal ramifications of sharing images of your __kids on Facebook may seem to be minimal to many of us, laws across the world are changing to protect children’s right to privacy.

In France, parents are at risk of a jail term or a fine of up to 45 000 euros (A$66 000), if their kids take them to court for breach of privacy or endangering their online security. And in Germany, police have issued a warning on their official Facebook page to warn parents to think again when posting images of their children on social media, due to concerns that paedophiles will use and alter the images.

Do you think before sharing photos of your kids online?

Playground app: Explore a new way of touching your music

I remember the thrill of exploring new places to play when I was a kid. New and different experiences enriched my mind; I welcomed varying surfaces to walk on, feeling textures of wood, metal and plastic, and finding creative ways to climb over new obstacles. I was always amazed at the many ways slides, little cubby holes, ladders and twisty tunnels could be put together.

As we get older, everything that was new becomes familiar, and it's easy to forget the feeling of childlike wonder that discovery and exploration brings.

What if an app could make you think and feel that way about music?

Playground * Music at your fingertips

Playground introduces us to new ways to play with sounds. Tapping, touching, rubbing back and forth, and dragging and shaking different shapes can produce a multitude of sounds. For those who’s __kids are into the zany hip hop and electronic music styles of Yo Gabba Gabba (and parents who secretly love it too), this might be something you’d want to check out!

There are sets of songs from premier electronic artists, with the different elements of a song broken down into shapes that you can interact with. Essentially you 'play' music like a futuristic conductor of an electronic orchestra.

As our children might be starting on their musical journeys with traditional instruments and formal music training, it's always great to be reminded that there are many ways of enjoying, expressing, and understanding music. My son with autism really enjoys Playground, and has really gotten into the groove of exploring new ways of playing with sounds.

I get a childlike rush when I see apps that make me experience and think about things, in this case, electronic music, in new and unconventional ways.

Check out the Playground App for iOS.

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