48. A duck that helps children tell people how they feel

The SXSW exhibition is astonishing, its a hall the size of a football pitch, crammed with hundreds of stands all presenting new ideas. There are social apps, and robots, and presentations of countries all around the world, encouraging you to work and engage with them.

If you came from Europe you probably wouldn't have heard of the Aflac Duck. I hadn't. If you were like me, you would have no idea about the insurance company linked to the duck. You would have come across it on a stand in the SXSW exhibition and heard a fascinating story.

The Aflac Duck is an interactive, AI toy, that looks like a fluffy toy duck, that has multiple ways of communicating. It's cute, and cuddly, but it comes with a set of small counters embedded with chips, each of which represents a different mood. It's given to children suffering from cancer, and they use the counters, pressing them against the duck, to get the duck to express how they feel.

The duck comforts the children. Find out more about the Aflac Duck here.