https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6j2cLEwRsY
Sony’s Toio is a craft set for the coding generation: the purpose is “Moving hands. Thinking crazy. Coincidental discovery.” Via FastCo Design:
In an era of STEM “toys” that forget toys are supposed to be fun, the weird side of Sony has showed up to save the day.
Toio is a new game console by Sony, but it’s not for your typical video games like the PlayStation 4. Instead, the cartridges are AI programs. The controllers are motion control rings. And the thing you play is really a pair of tiny robotic cubes on wheels–which you can dress up in papercraft, or even snap on Lego.
Spotted by Spoon & Tamago, it’s essentially a coding game–or maybe, a post-coding, crafting game–that never uses the phrase “learn to code.” Instead, the purpose is “Moving hands. Thinking crazy. Coincidental discovery,” the project page says. “To the children making the future, an original experience of ingenuity.”
At the heart of Toio live two core cubes. They can sense the exact position of one another and move with incredible precision. (Seriously, watch the videos to understand just what it means when two robots move like gears of a fine watch.) The cubes themselves aren’t really the toy. They’re more like building blocks of a toy. Tape them to a single piece of paper, and they’ll crawl along like an inchworm. Add a paper pair of pants and they look like feet taking careful steps. From building organic-looking paper organisms, to creating “craft fights” with shooting, puzzle-solving, chasing, and sports, the limitations are only in your imagination–and, okay, optional add-on packs, too.