For little ones, the world is full of mystery, prompting their torrent of questions from the moment they can start forming them. For parents, this is a wonderful moment. Knowing that they’re responsible for educating their children is a huge responsibility made easier with the internet. For the most part, it’s better if a child discovers everything on their own. The Miraffe is a clever compromise between the two.
Since a child can’t just log on to Google or Wikipedia and seek out the information they need, the Miraffe acts as an intermediary. It can recognize objects in the world and give children information on it along with simply being a toy with which to entertain with. It’s essentially a Wi-Fi enabled, 4″ HD screen with a quad-core 1.3GHz processors, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of storage, and a 5 MP camera.
It uses this to not only facilitate its object recognition tech but also its augmented reality features as well, adding a real, physical layer to the type of discovery enabled by Miraffe. It even has video chat capabilities so that parents can talk to their children without having to spring for an expensive smartphone. $149 gets a Miraffe to backers by August 2016 should its Kickstarter campaign reach the $20,000 goal.
Miraffe is an interesting take on the Montessori ideal of having a child discover the world around them on their own. But while other educational aids take on a more tactile approach as per the Monstessori method, Miraffe ultimately introduces another screen . Even if the Miraffe companion app gives parents control over its use, that the creator made that available shows that even he has thought about the downsides of having yet another screen in front of those little eyes.