Yes, this is one more device. As millennial parents, we face challenges with limiting screen time for kids. As much as we hate the constant distractions and addictive behavior these devices lead to, there is a ton of great content available for kids that enhances their learning. Our goal is to take the distractions out and bring in the content in a new format. Another issue we see with kids spending more time in front of a computer or a mobile device is their diminishing communication skills. We want young kids, especially those between 4-8yrs, to be active learners engaging with a visual assistant rather than tapping or browsing through infinite scrolling on tablets and be passive consumers. With visual and voice based virtual assistant, we want to encourage inquisitiveness in kids.
While Shawn can be an app on existing popular mobile devices, that approach defeats the purpose of reducing distractions and offering more collaborative/active engagement with the learning. We offer a ton of educational content. Content will be tailored to bigger displays so we can provide more effective way of learning. Our approach and the focus is on active information seeking rather than passive browsing/tapping and consuming whatever information is thrown at your kid.
The content we are building right now is geared towards kids attending pre-K to 5. Given the voice interaction needed for Shawn, we believe this is the appropriate age. However, we believe parents can drive the interaction and provide the necessary learning for kids aged 3-5 yrs. Of course, as adults we need some refreshing to do for elementary school learnings, so we are not against anyone using Shawn for their learning needs. Ask away!
We are testing our prototype currently and building content at the same time. We will start taking pre-orders around Aug 2021 with first shipment expected by Spring 2022. We want to make this as affordable as possible. With that goal, we want to achieve the pricing in the range of $250-$400. We are considering subscription model as well that could offset some of the upfront costs to the customers.