The past ten years or so have seen a huge push towards STEM subjects in the United States to shore up the youth for a future society dominated by computer programming and robotics. But no matter how important the programming skills are, children w care about the future implications of learning them unless it’s fun to learn first.
Enter the Codeybot, another crowdfunded little robot designed to engage children in the fundamentals of coding from the creators of the Makeblock. What’s immediately noticeable is how its LED panel and extremely appealing, wedge-shaped single-wheel design serve to grasp the usually fleeting attention spans of children. To maintain it, children program Codeybot with an iPad app using the mBlocky language. (Sorry Android users.)
Telepresence robots allow people who are away from home to check in on their pets and make sure burglars haven’t broken in. Regular viewers of the TV show The Good Wife know that telepresence robots can also be used to take part in office meetings when users are home sick or on a business trip. Such devices can also conceivably be used so that sick kids don’t miss important lessons at school. One major problem so far has been that these devices are too costly.