V.Smile Baby Infant Development System
© 2006 VTech Electronics North America
Update 2007: three new software smartridges have been announced: Barney, Baby Mickey and Teletubbies. The following review was written in the Fall of 2006. Designed to work as both a busy box and a game controller, this innovative and extremely talkative platform attempts to create a setting where children control the TV rather than the other way around. There are two main components. A console plugs into your TV and is powered either by 4 AA batteries or an AC adapter (not included). Software comes on cartridges that plug into the console. The activity panel is a colorful orange and white set of seven buttons powered by 3 AA's, with a washable plush cushion. Controls also include a recessed On/Off slider, a Menu button and a switch for toggling between TV or play alone modes. There's also a see-through slider switch that changes the level of the activity. This product offers two very different experiences. One is designed to work independently, with the sound coming from an internal speaker. The other works with your TV, and the controllers are used to make things happen on the screen. Unlike interactive DVDs which can be tricky to set up and sluggish to control, V.Smile Baby is easy to use, and the games are very responsive as long as the infrared signals don't get blocked. For the youngest users, who will have no idea that they can control something on the TV screen, this is simply another toy to explore, with a lot of sounds and sugary narration. More advanced levels associate short phrases with each shape (e.g., "a star has five points"); content that has little if any meaning to children under three, who would much rather explore the slippery buttons or perhaps pour juice on their sister's head. There is little to tactually explore, except for a spinning track ball. This is a pretty limited busy box. When in TV Play mode, the panel becomes a game controller. The cartridge that comes in the box, called Learn & Discover Home, offers 15 activities that range in quality. Some, such as Puppies Stacking Number Blocks, best exemplifies the potential for this platform. With each touch of a key, objects on the screen instantly change color, as children help a puppy count up or down from one to five. The action is quick and right on, developmentally. This brief window of control is eroded by both a menu where the icons don't match with the controller layout and a good deal of noisy background music. Included in the content is an animated introduction to sign language with no interactive element. Also, the sliding mode button is fun to move, so that a child who gets bored with the introduction may move the slider, not understanding where they are. The result is a quick loss of interest, at which point a narrator takes over with a mind numbing cycle of prompts before thankfully going to sleep. There will be five software titles ($15 each), including Baby Einstein. There are three modes of play for each cartridge; one of which is a sign language tutorial based on baby sign language (this is not ASL), based on the work of the authors of the book "Baby Signs" (Acredolo and Goodwyn) who served as consultants to this project.
$4015, V.Smile, TV
Teaches: sign language, early learning, classification, logic
CTR Rating: 76%