Play

It's one of those ideas that seems so simple that you wonder why no one's thought of it before: Gameboard-1 is a tabletop games console that could theoretically replace your board game collection – at least in part.

Learning coding language basics can be as hard as learning a foreign language. There are many toys aimed at giving future coders a kickstart, and the latest is a trainset from consumer robotics startup Innokind.​

With an automated future looming, getting our kids interested in coding is becoming just as important as reading, writing and arithmetic. The latest project to join efforts from Fisher-Price, Google and Osmo is Algobrix, a learning platform where youngsters build colorful bots and play with code.​

​Tickling is one of the most basic forms of playing, but it’s also one of the weirdest and least understood of the body’s physical reactions. So how do scientists go about answering these questions? They tickle rats, of course.

Keeping kids occupied can be a job in itself. That is, unless your house is one big adventure playground. Jerry House, designed by Thai architecture firm Onion, has nets, ladders and tunnels that provide both an environment in which kids can play and a means of moving around the house.

As much fun as Lego bricks can be, high price tags make it difficult for many people to build the more elaborate models they really want. With Pleygo, people can pay a much cheaper monthly fee to rent as many Lego sets as they want one at a time, much as Netflix rents out movies.

Tiggly Shapes is a set of four shape toys which interact with the iPad screen through a series of custom apps.

Wild Planet's Spy Video TRAKR is the first app-enabled, programmable remote-controlled video vehicle that digitally transmits color video, audio and data, and allows kids to create, download and share custom programs.

Nokia Research Center and Sesame Street Workshop have come up with a solution for grandparents wanting to help their grandchildren learn to read but being prevented from doing so by distance

Rubato Productions, makers of the Concert Hands teaching system, claim it will have you playing fluent piano in a matter of days

Toy-maker Mattel will release a range of action figures in October that come alive on your home computer when scanned by a webcam.