This week’s Smart World Series features a smart, talking Barbie doll, the latest on Japan’s smart home scene, a new smart car diagnosis tool that uses your phone, a smart pill to monitor stomach health, smart highways and more.

For those who missed last week’s Smart World Series, here’s a chance to catch up on the exciting developments in the connected world.  Each week, SiliconANGLE rounds up the top news trends regarding smart homes and cars, smart data centers and IT, smart infrastructure and all things related to the Internet of Things.

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Hello Barbie combines Barbie with Siri-like talking and conversation features

Forget about Teddy Ruxpin. Talking toys are getting smarter than 80s babies ever dreamed. Toy maker Mattel, Inc., in partnership with ToyTalk, Inc. is creating a Barbie doll that will be able to communicate with kids.

The Barbie with Siri-like technology listens to your kid’s voice and learn their language to be able to respond accordingly but some are already concerned that it could be violating the privacy of kids. The doll is slated to hit shelves later this year in time for the holidays, and will cost $75.

Read more about this new smart toy here.

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The latest in Japanese smart homes: Why this market is central to R&D

It has been predicted that the global market for smart homes will grow significantly between 2013 to 2020 at a compound annual growth rate of 29.5 percent. One of the main drivers for smart home adoption is to save on energy cost but in Japan, adoption is fueled by finding solutions for safe and secure living environment especially for the elderly.

Read more about what’s driving the smart home market in Japan here.

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IBM throws $3B into the Internet of Things

IBM has announced that it will be investing $3 billion into the Internet of Things which includes creating a dedicated IoT business unit. Big Blue has long been a proponent of smart and connected things, thus this move is not that big of a surprise. This investment also solidifies IBM’s place as one of the leading IoT companies of today.

Read more about this billion dollar investment here.

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Virtual car repairs is now a thing: FaceTime your mechanic

DISH Network Corp. has expanded its Smart Home Services to Amazon.com customers via the newly announced Amazon Home Services marketplace where customers can easily compare smart home offerings and prices.

Also featured in this roundup is AT&T’s focus on use cases to make people more interested in Internet-connected solutions and OpenbayConnect, a new platform that allows for remote diagnosis of smart cars.

Read more about these partnerships and announcements in our Smart Living roundup.

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Edible capsule monitors stomach health

Monitoring how healthy your digestive system may soon be as easy as swallowing a special pill, as researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and Monash University are developing a pill that is able to analyze the gas produced in the stomach and wirelessly transmit the result to a smartphone. This innovation is expected to aid in the analysis of how a person’s health is affected by the bacteria inside the digestive system as well as how food can affect it.

Also featured in this roundup is WearSens, a smart necklace that is able to track a person’s nutritional intake and STEMP, a wearable smart thermometer for continuous temperature monitoring.

Read more about these innovative new products in our Smart Health roundup.

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Show me a smart highway in Missouri

A new IDC Energy Insight report revealed that the smart building market is expected to grow from $6.3 billion in 2014 to $17.4 billion in 2019, a CAGR of 22.6 percent, and the most aggressive adoption is seen in the Asia/Pacific, North America, and Western Europe regions.

Also featured in this roundup is an engineer’s plan to transform the I-70 into a smart highway and IBM’s $3 billion investment in the connected market.

Read more about the IDC’s new report in our Smart City roundup.

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New Invention platform for the connected world

The Onion Corp. has unveiled the Onion Omega, an  invention platform for IoT which aims to simplify and democratize hardware prototyping and the development process for connected things. Also featured in this roundup is the partnership between Zigbee Alliance and the Thread Group for an interoperable solution to help streamline product development as well as to improve consumer experience in the connected home and Apigee Corp.’s Link, an API-first IoT platform.

Read more about these new platforms and partnership in our Smart DevOps roundup.

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Tune in next week for more interesting stories, discoveries and innovations in the world of smart and connected things.

photo credit: Creepy ‘Hello Barbie’ Doll Will Spy on Your Kids via photopin (license)