It's a bit of a shock - I've come to equate computing devices with high costs, and for a second it feels like watching Kurt Cobain demolish a Stratocaster onstage. Suddenly he stops, grabs the paper he's been using, crumples it up, and tosses it on the ground.
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He soon has a full multitrack recording studio operating on a sheet of paper.
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Marggraff goes on to draw Record and Play buttons, as well as a series of circles for additional drum noises.
When he wants to increase the tempo, he draws an up arrow in a rectangle and taps it. He touches one of these, and the pen chirps out a steady beat. He has just created a working piano keyboard.Īfter he adds boxes for sharp and flat keys, he draws three rhythm track buttons - rectangles with R1, R2, and R3 written in them. Marggraff touches one of the boxes, and the pen emits a perfect C note.
Next it has him connect the lines across the top and bottom, resulting in a long rectangle broken into eight boxes. The pen asks him to draw a series of nine vertical lines. From there he selects what the pen calls "fly tones." Then he's prompted to draw a G and circle it to access the Games menu. The pen says, "Main menu." He taps the M repeatedly, triggering the pen to offer him a series of options. He starts by drawing an M on a sheet of so-called Fly Paper, then makes a circle around it. I can't help but feel a little energized as well. He pushes aside some books and a talking electronic globe to begin what must be his thousandth personal demo of the Fly. The next thing I notice, because Marggraff is getting ready to show off his newest toy, is his enthusiasm. He plans to eventually open its architecture to encourage broader development. And Marggraff envisions still more uses for the Fly: as a group-computing device for businesses, for example, or a screenless PDA. have already signed on to develop games for the device. It's so impressive that Disney, Upper Deck, and Warner Bros. Marggraff views the $99 pen, which hits stores this fall in time for the Christmas season, as an ideal tool for teaching the 8- to 14-year-old tween market everything from algebra to Spanish. Think of it as a powerful PDA sucked into the stylus alone. In technical terms, Marggraff's Fly pen is an even greater achievement than his LeapPad. It was the fastest-growing toy company in history. Powered by the LeapPad and its accessories, LeapFrog's sales soared from $160 million in 2000 to $680 million in 2003. Winner of Toy of the Year from the Toy Manufacturers of America, it was the best-selling toy in the US in 20, and was knocked from the top spot in 2003 only by the books and cartridges sold separately for the device. In 1999, after three years of development, Marggraff unveiled the LeapPad, a product that is essentially a cross between a talking book and an educational videogame console. Thanks to Jim Marggraff, the company's resident inventor, LeapFrog leads the world in play-based learning. Over the last few years, this lab in Emeryville, California, just across the bay from San Francisco, has been the scene of countless a-ha moments. If he doesn't, he will probably give up in confusion. If Derek experiences a moment like this soon, he will likely become a fan of the Fly. We'll see a sharp intake of breath and widening of the eyes, maybe a brief verbal outburst. Then, a flash - a 0.3-second storm of high-frequency gamma waves and electricity - will light up Derek's anterior superior temporal gyrus, a gum ball-sized structure just beneath his right temple. It will begin in his right temporal lobe as a rumble of low-frequency beta waves that lasts for 1.2 seconds. On the other side of the mirror, the experts and I are waiting for Derek to have an a-ha moment. Soon he starts writing, the pen speaking each letter after he jots it down. His lilting, halting voice echoes through the lab. Derek has unfolded the directions and is painstakingly reading them aloud. Some kids just turn it on and start playing. The Fly is an electronic talking pen that LeapFrog is marketing as an educational toy. We're here to see what Derek does with a gadget LeapFrog calls the Fly. Behind a one-way mirror, two child development experts, a producer, and a journalist are watching anxiously. A pair of video cameras track his movements, and four microphones record his every murmur and sigh. The lanky 11-year-old is the only person in the room, but he's hardly alone. His sneakers swing back and forth a few inches above the carpet as he stares intently at an oversize pen, turning it in his hands, giving it careful consideration. Derek is perched on a chair in a Kid Lab at LeapFrog Enterprises.