RFID is a hot technology that already has brought a new level of interactivity to some toys, but don’t expect that adding RFID guarantees success. In March, Bandai, a Japanese toy company, introduced Naoru-kun, a doll that has an RFID interrogator in its mouth. When objects that come with the doll—candy, medicine and a syringe—are placed nearby, the interrogator reads the unique ID in the object, and the doll is able to respond with prerecorded messages. Give the doll a piece of candy and it says, “Mmm, tastes great.” Try to give it some medicine and it says: “Yucky,” or “I feel better now.”
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The doll costs 5,700 yen (about $50) and is targeted at 3- to 5-year-olds, primarily girls. A spokesperson for Bandai in Japan claims the Naoru-kun doll has received extremely high praise from parents, but kids haven’t embraced it the way they have Bandai’s Tamagotchi virtual pet and Digimon toy figures. The company says it has not decided whether to sell the Naoru-kun doll outside of Japan, and it has no plans to introduce another RFID-enabled toy any time soon. Unless, of course, Naoru-kun sales recover as quickly as the doll.
