Creative toy company Hijinx has announced a multi-year worldwide exclusive partnership with data-over-sound technology pioneer Chirp. Hijinx Alive™ powered by Chirp enables Hijinx to create toys that magically interact with content on any device.
Hijinx is committed to bringing exciting, inventive, and memorable play to kids of all ages. Drawing on a wealth of experience, passion, and knowledge, Hijinx designs and produces licence-focused toys for Beat Bugs™, Zafari™ and more. First up, Hijinx will utilise Hijinx Alive™ powered by Chirp in the upcoming range of Beat Bugs™ interactive toys.
Beat Bugs is an Emmy-award winning Netflix TV series where episodes explore the narrative of songs made famous by the Beatles in a child-friendly fashion. These official Beat Bugs toys will interact and sing along with the TV show and with each other. Following the launch in Beat Bugs toys, Hijinx will continue to work closely with Chirp to embed the technology into many more toys across their portfolio.
“Beat Bugs is one of the most innovative and exciting TV shows to be broadcast in recent years, and retail giants are already on board for the toys. We had to raise the bar on the toys that would accompany this series, and Hijinx Alive™ powered by Chirp does just that. The Beat Bugs toys will interact in a revolutionary way that children and their parents will find totally enchanting,” said Norma Rosenhain, chief executive officer at Hijinx.
She added, “The world of children’s entertainment and play is changing rapidly and today’s children want more interaction and engagement with their toys. Hijinx Alive™ powered by Chirp allows us to lead this evolution. This is just the start of our exclusive partnership with Chirp and we’re excited about the innovative toys we are currently developing.”
“This global partnership is testament to the unique technology that finally allows toys to interact with the world around them in a safe, secure way,” said Moran Lerner, chief executive officer at Chirp. “We’re looking forward to working closely with Hijinx to deliver a new generation of toys, starting with Beat Bugs, bringing the magic of this award-winning TV show into the real world, with each toy character able to interact with what is happening in the show in real-time.”
How Hijinx Alive™ powered by Chirp works
Chirp’s proprietary technology is typically used to encode data into a series of pitches and tones to form a sonic barcode or ‘Chirp’ that can be decoded by the receiving device. However, Beat Bugs presented a new challenge. Hijinx, in the process of developing the interactive Beat Bugs toys, asked Chirp to redesign its technology to allow it to interact with select audio from the Beat Bugs TV show itself and to make it work with toys.
“For the Beat Bugs toys, Hijinx Alive™ powered by Chirp uses this technology in a totally different way as we’re not embedding ‘Chirps’ into pre-existing television audio. Instead, the toys themselves will recognise portions of the audio and this triggers a select action for the toy,” said James Nesfield, chief technology officer at Chirp.
“Utilising Hijinx Alive™ powered by Chirp in this way enables toys to interact with entertainment shows, without the need for connectivity in the traditional sense. Parents can feel safe in the knowledge that they’re allowing their children to have engaging, safe experiences with the shows and toys that they love without exposing them to the potential dangers the internet presents.”
Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow OR @jcIoTnow
