Makey Makey is one of those gems at Toy Fair that you didn’t see coming…even though apparently, I’m oblivious and it’s been out for a while now.  My being an idiot aside, I was lucky enough to have Jay Silver, Founder and CEO of Makey Makey guide me through the product and show me just how incredibly innovative the product is.

What is it?  It’s a computer input device that mirrors the function of a keyboard by way of USB.  Here is the neat twist though.  The device is a single “card” that connects to a computer via USB.  Connected to the device are leads / alligator clips.  One end of a clip goes to the appropriate connect point on the device, the other is connected to, literally what the hell ever you want (as long as it’s conductive).  Some examples of what the hell ever, people, pets, a leaf, a banana, play-doh, and you can daisy chain.  So let’s say you connect the lead to the card, and you touch the other end, well that will trigger the appropriate connected keyboard key.  But if someone else touches you, that will flip that switch, and if someone touches them, it’ll flip it back.

This is taking simple science to a fun and interesting level providing clever uses for all ages.  I can see my little guys getting a huge kick out of this, but as discussed with Jay Silver…I need to compile my daily status reports at work with a couple of bananas ASAP!

Makey Makey retails for $49.95 and is available now where most normal humans buy most normal stuff, on the Internet (Amazon, etc).  Hopefully we see this on retail shelves at Best Buy and Toys R Us soon too!  You can probably also go to the Makey Makey web site to buy this bundle of awesome, there you will also find interesting hints, tips and projects you can take Makey Makey through.