ThinkGeek Baby Cry Analyzer: Is it Bunk?

[flatmaster]

This device claims to monitor a baby's crying and interpret why he's so upset. Usually think Geek is pretty good, but this sounds like bunk to me.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/geek-kids/newborn-infant/bea5/

 

[DavidSnider]

Yeah and I'm beginning to suspect that the C.H.I.M.P doesn't really have invincible monkey powers.

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/accessories/2940/

 

[my_wan]

I can't speak for the product, but with babies I have spent time around it is not difficult to learn how to recognize what a given cry is about, most times. I can't imagine how such a device would determine differences in individuals. Though it might work to some degree, the difference in babies alone makes it nearly impossible without knowing the baby. I can't imagine it even coming close to the accuracy of someone actually paying attention to the baby for any length of time.

 

[flemmyd]

wasnt this an episode of the simpsons?

 

[CRGreathouse]

The technique is certainly possible -- I have a good deal of first-hand experience doing this. But just because it's possible doesn't mean the product actually does it.

 

[mugaliens]

Even one of the best, fastest, and most complex pre-programmed signals analyzers in the world can't accurately distinguish between "stressed, sleepy, annoyed, bored, wet, or hungry," even after years of training. They're claiming this $40 device can?

I think the claims are hyped.

As far as the babies themselves are concerned, there's only one condition: "Something's wrong." Admittedly, the tone of that "something's wrong" cry is different depending on whether the baby is tired or just ticked off, so at least a couple of the product claims are theoretically possibly.

My concern is if parents attempt to use it to justify ignoring a baby's crying if it's not "wet or hungry," figuring the baby will eventually move on from stressed to sleepy, or bored to content with being bored, if not just tired out from crying.

Regardless, what if the monitor is wrong and the parents allow their judgement to be supplanted by an only partially correct, $40 monitor, even to the point of neglect? Will the courts allow the parents' neglect to also fall on the shoulders of the company who made the monitor and sold it to be correct?

Or does it behoove parents to use their "best, fastest, and most complex pre-programmed signals analyzers in the world" to put their feet on the floor and walk into their children's bedrooms, check the diaper and hunger, and even then, if the child is still crying, to simply hold them in their arms for a while?

 

[I_am_learning]

Stupid product I would say.
We can easily tell what is happening. Whether the baby is wet? It can be surely be checked. Hungry? of-course not, he has just eaten. Sleepy? Perhaps, since he is awake for hours. Annoyed/stressed? Oh! yea, please don't make noises. Bored? maybe, let's play with him.

I think every one can do those analysis. Useless and senseless machine. Perhaps they also sell a machine which will tell you its time for you to go to restroom.