Amazing Amanda: A Living Doll

Amanda is more than a mere doll.

Judy Shackelford has been in the toy industry for more than 40 years and has sold lots of dolls.

She is very proud of her latest creation.

It has speech-recognition technology, memory chips, radio frequency tags and scanners, and facial robotics.

Shackelford and her team have christened it Amazing Amanda.

Radio frequency tags in Amanda's accessories, including toy food, a potty and clothing, wirelessly inform the doll of what it is interacting with.

For instance, if the doll asks for a spoon of peas and it is given its plastic cookie, it will gently admonish its caregiver, telling her that a cookie is not peas.

Amazing Amanda, scheduled for release this month in the United States by Playmates Toys, is expected to cost $US99 ($A130), says Shackelford, chief executive of J. Shackelford & Associates, a product and marketing company in Moorpark, California, that specialises in toys and children's entertainment.

At that price, the same as Apple's entry-level iPod Shuffle music player, the 45-centimetre-tall doll promises (on the box it will be sold in) to "listen, speak and show emotion".

Some analysts and buyers who have seen Amanda say it represents an evolutionary leap from earlier talking dolls such as Chatty Cathy of the 1960s, that cycled through