NEW YORK (AP) -- The "Sesame Street" crew has been talking to kids for more than four decades. Now they're offering a way for their pint-sized audience to interact with characters on the other side of the TV screen.
"Kinect Sesame Street TV" comes out this week. It's not exactly a video game, though it runs on Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game system.
Using the motion and voice-sensing controller Kinect, Grover counts coconuts that kids throw, the Count praises youngsters for standing still and Elmo catches a ball that viewers throw to him.
Villanova University communications professor Emory Woodard says a lot of TV shows involve characters talking to the kids. In this case, he says the characters can "react to the child's response." As to whether that will make a difference to children, Woodard says "that's a research question to explore."
(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)