Saw this one engadget this morning. You can read the original news article here. Most “geeks” are seeing this game as an epic fail, but I think it’s kind of inventive.

All jokes aside, it’s kind of an interesting user experience their creating. Where before you had an inanimate doll, you know have a full blown computer powered brain. With the accelerometers, it could detect if you’re holding your baby wrong, if you’re trying to sooth your baby, etc. I like the use of the speaker in the remote too. Now, you’re giving audible feedback. It would be cool if they could get putting in a bottle in it’s mouth to trigger one of the remotes buttons, so you know when it’s being fed.

For little girls/boys who like to play mother/father, I think the remote interface has some great potential. I think where it might fail, is in the game portion itself. If the game is task oriented, I don’t think it would be as enjoyable as if it was just open ended, and continued to interact with the doll as the child plays in the same room as the Wii. It will be interesting to see the experience this product creates.

Here’s a new study that’s being worked on, the idea of using muscle gestures to interface with computers. This is clearly a case of research driving plausibility. But, I like the fact that they’re using use case scenarios to display functionality. Just think, in a few years, this could all be sewn right into a shirt or jacket, that interfaces with your phone, car, whatever. Pretty exciting stuff.

Still, this does add a layer of discontinuity. There are arbitrary correlations between touching your pinkie, and skipping a song track. Or, making a fist to open a car door. I see a lot of parallels being formed here, that relate to Donal Norman’s issues with telephone systems.