Google patents 'creepy' cuddly toys

Google's patent shows a toy rabbit and teddy bear but says that other child-friendly designs would be possible

BBC reports Google's R&D team has looked into making internet-connected toys that control smart home appliances.

The firm has published a patent that describes devices that would turn their heads towards users and listen to what they were saying, before sending commands to remote computer servers.

The 3 year old patent was spotted recently by the legal technology firm SmartUp.

It described the proposal as "one of Google's creepiest patents yet".

Privacy campaigners have also raised concerns.

A spokeswoman for Google was unable to say whether this was a product the firm might develop and sell.

"We file patent applications on a variety of ideas that our employees come up with," she said.

"Some of those ideas later mature into real products or services, some don't. Prospective product announcements should not necessarily be inferred from our patent applications," she added.

The patent was originally filed back in February 2012, but has only just been published.

Its inventor is named as Richard Wayne DeVaul, whose job title is "director of rapid evaluation and mad science" at Google X - the firm's secretive "skunkworks" lab.

The patent describes how the toys would include microphones, speakers, cameras and motors as well as a wireless connection to the internet.

It states that a trigger word would cause them to wake up and turn their gaze towards the person addressing them, and would be able to check if the person talking was making eye contact.

The document suggests the device could respond both by speaking back and by expressing "human-like" expressions of interest, curiosity, boredom and/or surprise.

"To express interest, an anthropomorphic device may open its eyes, lift its head and/or focus its gaze on the user," Mr DeVaul wrote.

"To express curiosity, [it] may tilt its head, furrow its brow, and/or scratch its head with an arm."

Google is not the first firm to see the appeal of a family-friendly voice-activated control for the home, as an alternative to using remote controls or smartphones.

Amazon already sells the Echo in the US - a cylindrical internet-linked device that can be used to control music playback, check the weather and order food.