The prevalence of smartphones and tablets is something that needs to be carefully managed around children lest they become too attached. It’s been proven that too much screen time can have an adverse on young, developing minds, something that prompted the team behind Egger to do something about it.
Their solution is a friendly, egg-shaped augmented reality projector designed with children in mind. The Egger can be used as an educational aid as much as it can be used as an entertainment device, with both subject to inputs from children and adults alike using the packed remoter control reminiscent of a Wiimote. It can play movies, TV shows, and music, with a sketchpad to really let the imagination loose, as well. It scales down projection brightness to just 100 lumens to account for the more sensitive eyes children have, but can display a screen up to 100 inches big at a 1200×800 resolution. And with access to the Play Store, there are many options kids have to learn with and enjoy. Each Egger is $299 and is slated to ship in November 2016 should its fixed Indiegogo campaign raise $20,000 by September 2016.
The logic the team behind the Egger has isn’t exactly sound — there are too many screens around, so let’s introduce another? While that may be flawed, the actual product is solidly constructed and offers an opportunity for learning in a novel way, especially considering the plethora of applications on the Play Store. Still, something like the Codeybot offers the type of learning experiencing most parents are looking for.