State-of-the-art robot to promote fun learning for kids
Robots have been around us for a long time now and have been helping us in many aspects of everyday life.
They have been developed for factories and labs, for the purpose of being able to access “restricted” areas, be present in conferences and to help us solve many challenges across sectors. Technological advancements are enabling robots to sense the world in ways beyond our capabilities. Those include watching the floor at the end of a hallway to picking up movements reflected from the other side that the human eye can’t detect.
Robots are also used to assist elderly people in nursing homes, fight crime, help with medical procedures in hospitals, educate kids in school and protect our homes.
So what is the latest robotic invention to help humans?
The latest invention has been created by California startup Embodied. The company has built an educational robot called Moxie.
Moxie has a small head rested upon a tube-shaped baby blue body. It has been designed to promote cognitive, emotional and social learning. It helps kids ages six to nine.
The creators’ inspiration to build the robot is helping kids with social-emotional development and communication skills through daily interactions, and the demand arose from parents asking for a solution that comprises of those features.
Some of Moxie’s features help kids with various tasks/activities, including inventive, improvised play like drawing and mindfulness practice through breathing exercises. Children can read with Moxie and explore ways to be sympathetic to others, as well as encouraging interest in children to discover the world around them.
Its mission is teaching a child the importance of friendship and improving cognitive, emotional and social skills by encouraging the child to train the robot to better suit their individual needs.
The important element in this interaction is content and making sure kids do not lose interest with a diverse program of fun, new tasks and activities to keep kids engaged.
Moxie has the ability to handle a kid’s tough response like, “I don’t want to help you” or “I don’t want to share more” or “I don’t want to talk about it” by using a gentle approach of insistence or moving on to something else and addressing the important topics later.
Regarding security concerns, the social home robot’s data will be encrypted with parents having the ability to access it. However, the concern still arises when looking at the structure of Moxie which contains four microphones located in its head and a camera on the front which can all be used to interact with and observe those nearby. It has been created this way because Moxie’s effectiveness relies on data, which helps it interact with kids providing valuable feedback for parents.
Moxie will be available for free through a beta program, for Embodied to receive feedback from larger groups of families – with the aim of shipping robots to everyone by October 2020. People can reserve a Moxie for a fully refundable deposit of $50, which goes toward the full retail price of $1500.