Sega Toys has announced an interactive toy plant called Pekoppa (link to PDF). The plant stays inactive until someone starts to interact with it by speaking. The toy plant has an IC chip that recognizes patterns in human speech and moves the plant in response, the movement resembling nods. Targeted toward office workers, Pekoppa’s official tagline is “Heal yourself with this plant, which is a good listener!”.
The robotic plant is slated to only sell in Japan starting September 30th, but given that they hope to sell 200,000 Pekoppas it is quite possible that the interactive plant will eventually be released worldwide. The suggested retail will be $22.
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