Toys With Byte

Is it possible for a toy to do too much and not enough?

That question occurred to me after my family tried out three of a new generation of high-tech playthings marketed jointly by Intel and Mattel.

The QX3 microscope, the Digital Movie Creator and the Computer Sound Morpher are designed to connect directly to a home PC, giving them capabilities that ostensibly outstrip those of their forebears: the optical microscope, the video camera and the tape recorder.

But as my 10- and 13-year-old sons quickly discovered during a few sessions of concentrated play, these snazzy computerized capabilities come at the expense of serious compromises in their more conventional functions. The software performance also is glitchy: Our microscope program almost invariably crashed the computer upon closing, and we never got the Sound Morpher to connect properly to our sound card. My kids were bored by these gadgets within a few minutes.

Let’s start with the QX3 microscope, introduced last year. The current version, labeled the QX3 Plus, appears to differ chiefly in the addition of some software functionality. The retail price remains $99.

The QX3 is a sturdy plastic cylinder in a mount with a viewing platform, resembling a standard home microscope. It connects to the PC via a Universal Serial Bus plug. When its software is launched (each of these devices’ CD-ROMs must be in the computer for them to work) an image of the item being examined appears on screen. The image can be stored as a digital snapshot or sequenced with others for a time-lapse effect. The microscope can be removed from its mount for free-ranging examinations (although there’s a limit to how far it can travel because it must remain linked to the USB port). The device offers magnification powers of 10x, 60x and 200x.

The chief problems with the QX3 are its grainy image resolution and its difficulty focusing. Because the monitor image is generated by the device snapping a couple of shots a second, you don’t get real-time feedback as you turn the focus knob. In fact, the image continues to shift perceptibly after you stop turning. Settling reliably on the sharpest image is almost impossible.

To make up for these shortcomings, Intel and Mattel packed the software with features allowing kids to manipulate the captured images by coloring them, twisting them or layering on special effects. Is this a fair trade? I don’t think so. Any scientifically inclined child will get bored with these coloring games in no time.

The manufacturers have been pitching the QX3 to schools and teachers as a “low-cost” microscope, but that’s a scam. A good school-quality microscope--with 400x magnification power, twice that of the QX3--can be purchased for less than $150. That’s clearly the way to go if you think your child will be enthralled by the mysteries of the infinitesimal world, rather than by drawing happy faces and multicolored petals on daisies.

Similar shortcomings afflict the Movie Creator, which is due to be released in time for Christmas sales at a retail price of $99. This is basically a junior digital camcorder that fits into a cradle connected, in turn, to a USB port. It has a built-in microphone for simultaneous sound recording.

But the movie creator isn’t a very capable instrument. Detached from the cradle, the device can store only one minute of reasonable-quality video (or four minutes at what Intel calls “normal quality,” which is almost unwatchable). No one, therefore, should plan on bringing it to a party and recording the festivities. It is returned to the cradle to download stored images to the PC or for continuous recording. Even in that mode, however, the device’s recording speed is slow, so it does a dismal job of capturing moving images.

Intel’s instruction manual glosses over these failings with a lot of persiflage about turning kids into junior Spielbergs. (“Make movies ‘on location’ in your backyard.”) The software includes stock footage of UFOs landing and elephants stampeding, which can be edited into the crude images the Movie Creator can record. I suspect it’s a rare kid who will be diverted by this stuff for more than a few days.

In the expected price range, the Movie Creator will be substantially cheaper than full-featured digital camcorders, which are on the market for $350 to $1,200. Even the most modest of those, however, record onto digital tapes with hours of storage capacity and produce high-quality video images. Most come with PC connections and editing software that probably outshines Intel’s package.

The Sound Morpher, which retails for less than $50, allows kids to record and manipulate sounds through a microphone that can be clipped to one’s belt; it links to a PC not via the USB port but through the microphone jack to the sound card.

Theoretically, you can cut and paste a spoken phrase to change the order of words, disguise a voice and do all sorts of other nominally fascinating things. One feature allows kids to assemble cartoon faces whose lips move in sync with a stream of spoken words. This is the function that most fascinated my kids in the few minutes before they got bored and went off to more deeply satisfying endeavors, such as whitewashing the front fence.

We were unable to get our PC to download recordings from the device, apparently because the Sound Morpher could not find an unconflicted path to our sound card. Faced with spending hours debugging the program or fixing a broken cabinet latch in the kids’ bathroom, I chose the latter and was happier for it.

These are toys, no mistake about it, and not inexpensive ones. The QX3’s and Movie Creator’s main functions are performed barely adequately and their glitzy ones decently. As investments in learning, they warrant at best a C-.

*

Times staff writer Michael Hiltzik covers technology.

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Skinny Box

QX3 Plus Computer Microscope

Price: $99

The good: Magnifies objects as much as 200 times and displays images on a home computer

The bad: Grainy resolution, very difficult to focus

Bottom line: Comes with software to manipulate images, but that hardly makes up for the shortcomings

*

Digital Movie Creator

Price: $99

The good: Records videos that can be downloaded to a PC

The bad: Videos are too short to be much fun

Bottom line: Cheaper than a full-featured digital camcorder, but too limited to keep a kid entertained for long

*

Computer Sound Morpher

Price: $50

The good: Records sound that can be mixed and manipulated on a PC

The bad: Difficult to hook into PC, boring software features

Bottom line: After a few minutes, the kids were more interested in painting the front fence