Meet “Copycat Cathy,” my third and final venture with Bob Jeffway. She was a total failure. The doll that you are seeing here has never been seen by anyone but Bob, The Obb, and me. The concept was intended to be an animated talking baby doll, one that carried animation to a new level for its day, and, at the same time, did some ground breaking vocal tricks, electronically. I thoroughly discussed the concept with Bob, ahead of time. He assured me that doing what we agreed upon would be a piece of cake for him. But when he finally tried to sink his teeth into the project, his cake turned out to be made of cement.
Meanwhile, I had sculpted, animated, and engineered a working model that proved the proposed actions were not only possible, but comfortable. All the animation was triggered by a single motor. Cathy could move her eyes and turn her head, quite realistically. I installed two microphones, one inside each ear, so she could sense where the voice speaking to her was located, and turn her head in that direction. She was also wired to plug objects into her hand. These would alter the conversation. Her voice would cue the animation. And getting it to trigger the actions should have been a breeze. The computer chip that controlled what Cathy said and did was to be Bob Jeffway's contribution.
Meet “Copycat Cathy,” my third and final venture with talking chip creator, Robert Jeffway. The project proved to be a total failure! The doll that you are seeing here has never been seen by anyone, other than my partners, Bob and me. The concept was intended to be an animated talking baby doll, one that carried animation to a new level for its day, and, at the same time, did some ground breaking vocal tricks, electronically. I thoroughly discussed the concept with Bob, ahead of time. He assured me that doing what we agreed upon would be a piece of cake for him. But when he finally tried to sink his teeth into the project, the cake turned out to be made of cement. In other words, he got his cake but couldn't eat it!
Meanwhile, I had sculpted, animated, and engineered a working model that proved the proposed actions were not only possible, but comfortable. All the animation was triggered by a single motor. Cathy could move her eyes, and rotate and tilt her head, quite realistically. I installed two microphones, one inside each ear, so, she could sense where the voice speaking to her was located, and turn her head in that direction. She was also wired to plug objects into her hand. These would alter the conversation. Her voice would cue the animation. And getting it to trigger the actions should have been a breeze. The computer chip that controlled what Cathy said, and did, was to be Bob Jeffway's contribution.
The plan was that Copycat Cathy would listen, and then respond with prerecorded baby sounds that the chip would rearrange to imitate the cadence of what had just been said. In other words, Cathy would appear to be trying to learn to speak by echoing the words she heard, in baby talk. When her pet cat was plugged into her hand, the chip would do the same, but, this time, with a kitten voice instead. Therefore, the chip would appear to operate as a translator, enabling both Cathy and her kitty to speak in their own language.
I spent several months, creating a working prototype. This included sculpting a whole new doll, complete with with all the internal mechanism. How work intensive and complex was this? This photo offers you a clue, every aspect of Cathy’s wiring was complete, and every wire was labeled, ready for Bob to do his thing.
The mechanical atributes of the doll were not groundbreaking, as the required technology was already existing. The original part would be the chip, which would appear to be translating. Of course, today, there is nothing unusual about devices that actually do instant translation, from one language to many. But, back in the year 2000, Cathy’s translator, even though it was not real, was still a device that had not been done in the toy industry. That was the new element that we hoped would sell the doll.
Then, I made the video below, essentially, as a guide for Bob. Our plans were that, when he completed the chip, the soundtrack, if not the entire video, would be recorded again. No one was supposed to see what you are about to see. And, indeed, nobody did!
Now, with a certain reluctance, I offer you the video. I admit it’s kind of creepy. It ventures into that unexplored territory, known as the Uncanny Valley, a place where inanimate objects almost look alive, but not quite. The objects in my collection harbor happily on the safe side of the line between inanimacy and reality. But Copycat Cathy perilously pushed the line. My voice on the tape was also creepy. But, be that as it may, none of these shortcomings mattered, for in the end, which arrived prematurely, the entire endeavor proved to be a monumental waste of time.
Incidentally, in spite of its shortcomings, there are moments in this video when Cathy almost looks alive. Some fleeting nuances never fail to make me laugh. I particularly like the way she reacts to her talking cat. At one point, after she hears it speak, she glances at the camera as if to say, “What am I doing in this crazy place?” And, I also like the way, just as the tape is ending, she gives the cat a final glance.
With my part of the project finished, I packed everything carefully, the doll, the video and all the notes we’d made, and sent it all to Bob Jeffway. His task would be to take it from there, and work his sonic magic.
Six month’s passed, with periodic updates from Bob, informing us that he was making progress. Then, suddenly, he sent the entire project back, with a note, saying he couldn’t do it! Words failed me! They still do today. I closed the box and never opened it again.
Meanwhile, for the past sixteen years, Copycat Cathy has been sleeping peacefully, among the memories that populate the secret storage space, behind my desk. I crawled into there, yesterday, which was no easy feat with my badly replaced knee, and found her still sealed shipping case. Upon opening it, I was pleased to see that, although, her pussycat and accessories are missing, Cathy, herself, now sweet sixteen, still looks the same.