Play-i Robots To Help Young Children Learn Programming


PlayIWhen it comes to learning, you're never too young, right? What about learning code? Shouldn't children start understanding the basics of programming at a young age? Considering there are countries where students begin programming classes as early as the first grade, why not incorporate this into America where it is very rare? A former Google employee, Vikas Gupta, need a new discovery. For his new life's work, he decided to make a compelling and fun way for children as young as 5 to learn code. The result? Play-i, a new startup company from Sunnyvale, California consisting of impressive engineers from Google, Apple and Frog Design. Play-i works by kids interacting with gadgets simply by giving them drag and drop instructions.

PlayI1Two sphere-shaped robots work by wirelessly connecting to iOS devices via Bluetooth. The two, Bo and Yana, are rolling robots with completely different personalities and coding needs. Bo (the “explorer”) comes with various parts such as motors, lights, sensors and inputs; all of which Yana (the “storyteller”) does not have. Although able to work independently of each other, they play very well together as well, always able to sense the other. With such cute, colorful little bots how could children not be compelled to start playing and learning?

Playi2All that needs to be done is have access to the Scratch and Blocky programming libraries. Kids then have just one choice to make- what kind of fun activities their robots will be doing, then they set them out and watch them follow commands. The child has direct access to preset code options, which gives them a good introduction to the basics. As an example, a simple concept could be- “if enter obstacle here then allow for movement here as a result”. A literal example could be “shake the robot and it roars like a lion”. This would be obvious fun for a child, prompting them to do more. By seeing the preset coding pan out with the bots, they start to learn the ropes. This eventually prepares them to write their very own set of code for the robots to perform. Apparently as easy as “Just starting the app and handing it over to your child, they will know what to do”, says the company. Making sure the children follow their curiosity as it naturally comes is Play-i's goal. A crowdfunding campaign launched this week, and if enough backers help fund their goal, Yana and Bo could set the path to a lifetime of programming for children.

Topics: Technology News Gadgets & Peripherals Inventions & Innovations

Join the conversation!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.