 Hey, this is Nat with The Verge and this is my special Affleck Duck. It's a partnership between Sproutel and Affleck to develop a toy to give kids who are facing cancer to cope through the process. Now what's special about the duck is it's got a little sensor on his cheek, under his wings so that when you rub it he reacts to your touch. It's a cute little toy for kids to kind of have a social friend to go through the process with them when they're in the hospital so that they don't have to wait for friends and family to come visit and so they don't feel so alone when they're kind of just stuck in their room all day long. Affleck also comes with a little backpack that's full of different things like all these emoji buttons. So for example if you're feeling good that day but don't really know how to communicate you can use these little buttons to essentially talk to the people who are visiting you or your doctor and nurses when they're asking how you're feeling. So you tap it in the middle of his chest and Affleck will sound like it's really happy. The duck also comes with a medication administering kit so that when it comes time for the kids to get the medication they can kind of administer it themselves and kind of get familiarized with the process, make them feel less scared about taking some medication so you just attach it to the chest just to replicate the feeling of what it would be like to get medication and once that's done maybe then the nurse would say okay it's your turn Affleck's gone through it and now you can do it too. My Special Affleck also connects to an app via Bluetooth where kids can design a special place that's like a rainforest or a farm and this rocket ship when placed on his heart then you'll hear the soundscape of say that said forest to help them calm down and feel like they're not in a hospital. Now it's also got a mute button behind the back under the tail so that if parents are playing with it at night or kids are trying to go to sleep they can turn that off and won't be so noisy. There's also a little heartbeat that's at the top of the head so that if kids are going to sleep they can hold it and feel a heartbeat kind of help them breathe and go through and calm down, relax. Really nice actually. My Special Affleck Duck is the second toy from Sprout Tail. Its first toy, Jerry the Bear, was designed to help children with type 1 diabetes learn how to check and monitor their blood sugar and figure out when it's time for a shot of insulin. The company even got to show their product off to President Obama back in 2015 when the White House hosted its first and only demo day. By marketing definition, the Affleck Duck isn't technically smart. There's no integrated voice assistant, it doesn't talk back to kids, there's no camera, but all of that actually makes the Duck feel smarter than a lot of other gadgets with way too many features. When you're going through a tough time, sometimes all you really want is just something comforting to get you through it. CS is full of all kinds of gadgets. Strange, weird, a lot of them useless, so it's nice to see something with a genuinely heartwarming purpose. Now my special Affleck is not actually going to be commercially available. Affleck is trying to work with hospitals around the nation to get this to the 16,000 kids who are diagnosed with cancer yearly, so they're working to have the hospitals get the kids these toys by the end of 2018. What's special about this is it's also got a little device here that resembles medication so that when kids are about to get medication...
 Hey, this is Nat with The Verge and this is my special Affleck Duck.
 It's a partnership between Sproutel and Affleck to develop a toy to give kids who are facing
 cancer to cope through the process.
 Now what's special about the duck is it's got a little sensor on his cheek, under his
 wings so that when you rub it he reacts to your touch.
 It's a cute little toy for kids to kind of have a social friend to go through the process
 with them when they're in the hospital so that they don't have to wait for friends and
 family to come visit and so they don't feel so alone when they're kind of just stuck in
 their room all day long.
 Affleck also comes with a little backpack that's full of different things like all these
 emoji buttons.
 So for example if you're feeling good that day but don't really know how to communicate
 you can use these little buttons to essentially talk to the people who are visiting you or
 your doctor and nurses when they're asking how you're feeling.
 So you tap it in the middle of his chest and Affleck will sound like it's really happy.
 The duck also comes with a medication administering kit so that when it comes time for the kids
 to get the medication they can kind of administer it themselves and kind of get familiarized
 with the process, make them feel less scared about taking some medication so you just attach
 it to the chest just to replicate the feeling of what it would be like to get medication
 and once that's done maybe then the nurse would say okay it's your turn Affleck's gone
 through it and now you can do it too.
 My Special Affleck also connects to an app via Bluetooth where kids can design a special
 place that's like a rainforest or a farm and this rocket ship when placed on his heart
 then you'll hear the soundscape of say that said forest to help them calm down and feel
 like they're not in a hospital.
 Now it's also got a mute button behind the back under the tail so that if parents are
 playing with it at night or kids are trying to go to sleep they can turn that off and
 won't be so noisy.
 There's also a little heartbeat that's at the top of the head so that if kids are going
 to sleep they can hold it and feel a heartbeat kind of help them breathe and go through and
 calm down, relax.
 Really nice actually.
 My Special Affleck Duck is the second toy from Sprout Tail.
 Its first toy, Jerry the Bear, was designed to help children with type 1 diabetes learn
 how to check and monitor their blood sugar and figure out when it's time for a shot of
 insulin.
 The company even got to show their product off to President Obama back in 2015 when the
 White House hosted its first and only demo day.
 By marketing definition, the Affleck Duck isn't technically smart.
 There's no integrated voice assistant, it doesn't talk back to kids, there's no camera,
 but all of that actually makes the Duck feel smarter than a lot of other gadgets with way
 too many features.
 When you're going through a tough time, sometimes all you really want is just something comforting
 to get you through it.
 CS is full of all kinds of gadgets.
 Strange, weird, a lot of them useless, so it's nice to see something with a genuinely
 heartwarming purpose.
 Now my special Affleck is not actually going to be commercially available.
 Affleck is trying to work with hospitals around the nation to get this to the 16,000 kids
 who are diagnosed with cancer yearly, so they're working to have the hospitals get the kids
 these toys by the end of 2018.
 What's special about this is it's also got a little device here that resembles medication
 so that when kids are about to get medication...