Tired of having to push buttons to keep your virtual LCD friend alive?

Think that counting steps is boring?

Then why not get a tamagotchi you have to keep alive and well-fed by walking a set number of steps per day? Every 4,000 steps earns it a meal.

If you walked below 2,000 steps per day (for instance), your pet would die. But if you went for a nice long walk of 16,000 steps, your pet might be fit and strong enough to last a couple of days without food.

Of course, all of the step targets could be password-configured.

Could be a good way of getting kids to exercise more; walk to school or your digital pet will die.

The only problem is giving it to somebody else to look after...
-- Quin, Mar 17 2005

We Mwake Money Not Art: Heartbeat-based Game http://www.we-make-...archives/005261.php
Sort of baked here. "As players travel through the landscape the physical and physiological changes in their body help to create a different world. The game responds to the location and physical activity of the players, measured by pedometers and heart-rate monitors... 'Ere Be Dragons aims to encourage people to exercise by walking and to learn more about their body." [Quin, Apr 05 2005]

Wikipedia: Pokémon Pikachu (1998) http://en.wikipedia...ok%C3%A9mon_Pikachu
As mentioned by Quinopio. A builtin pedometer gives you "Watts"; you can buy presents for the pikachu with those. [jutta, Jun 09 2007]

Great name - could also be applied to a device that must be kept "alive" by correctly learning answers to questions posed by the device, or would that be a "pedagogotchi"?
-- AbsintheWithoutLeave, Mar 17 2005


The half-heard effect again - I was expecting this to be a digital pet that harangued you constantly to get into political radicalism. Pedometer is much better than pedagogue, though. Good for training for adventure holidays, if you don't trust your friends to Walk for Life - although extra points should be got for running instead of walking. That can't be hard, can it? To work out if you're running instead of walking?
-- moomintroll, Mar 17 2005


[+] what a cute little encouragement to get the kiddies walking more.
-- sophocles, Mar 17 2005


cool idea.

here's another thought, how about a treadmill hooked up to a generator, powering a computer that's running "the sim's"?
-- -wess, Mar 17 2005


Can I ped your gotchi? Seriously, though, I like it. As a matter of fact, this could be a training tool for all kinds of habits.
-- submitinkmonkey, Mar 17 2005


Pedogotchi.... feed your pet child porn or he dies...
-- Trickytracks, Mar 17 2005


Smart kids would tie it to the dog's collar. ...
-- RBStimers, Mar 18 2005


[Trickytracks] actually, when i first saw this idea in the recent 3, i thought it was about seducing virtual children. But when i noticed how many croissants it had i was glad to know i was wrong.
-- -wess, Mar 18 2005


"Could be a good way of getting kids to exercise more..."
Forget the kids. I want one of these for myself.
-- st3f, Mar 24 2005


//As a matter of fact, this could be a training tool for all kinds of habits.//
For heaven's sake, don't attach one to a teenage boy's wrist.
<ahem> not speaking from personal experience, of course. I read about it, once, in a book.
-- Ling, Mar 24 2005


It seems harder to get the kids outside doing something active now. My daughter had a tamagotchi and monitored that sucker for months, from the recliner! This would have fixed that problem! Bun!
-- 37PiecesOf Flair, Apr 06 2005


Both Pokemon Pikachu models did something like this, although I don't think they'd actually die.
-- Qinopio, Apr 07 2005


Sign me up, I'll take two! [+]
-- elhigh, Jul 21 2005


I'll add this one to my pedagogy.
-- moPuddin, Jul 22 2005


You've got one year from the day this was published, that means till March 17, 2006 to get this patented.

I think you should do it. The number of parents who would buy this to help keep their kids more active would be in the millions in my opinion. It's certainly interesting enough to get lots of free publicity on the news and that's a big plus in selling new inventions.

Get a book called "Patent it Yourself" by Nolo press and you won't have to spend thousands on a lawyer.

Loose the name though. Nobody's buying something for kids called Peda- anything.
-- doctorremulac3, Jul 24 2005


As far as patenting goes, unfortunately I think this might qualify as prior art, [doc].
-- moomintroll, Jul 26 2005


Hmmm. May be right. Depends on how broad they were with their patent. If they said something like: "Entertainment device based on players heartbeat" and left it at that, it's probably covered. If they got real specific though, ironically that would make it easier to do something somewhat similar, but not exactly.

Quin might be able to get it in as: "Pedometer with various graphic representations of character linked to distance walked" or something.

In any case, this idea is a lot better.

Hey Quin, look at those buns piling up, you've got a winner here! At least go to the UK or US patent office website and do a search to see what, if anything, is similar. I think it would be really cool if somebody made a million bucks off of an idea they first posted here if that hasn't happened already.
-- doctorremulac3, Jul 27 2005


If you take that quote out of context, and perhaps take one word out...

"walk to school or your ... pet will die."
-- dbmag9, Jul 27 2005


Just what the world needs: more ankle-biters. +
-- reensure, Jul 27 2005



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