Meet Codie
Codie is a smart toy robot and a custom-built visual coding language. Kids love their smartphones. The Codie team thought, why not use those gadgets to tell them more about the digital world? While playing with Codie, the children become familiar with logical thinking that all technology is based on. Their unique approach allows us to educate without the constraints of traditional educational tools – and it fits into the playing style of the children and augments their experience.
Coding doesn’t stop at the edge of the screen
There are a number of initiatives that want to get kids coding. What’s the difference with Codie? Programming is a complex process that needs abstraction, which can put off many. Codie makes programs much more than a virtual experience: we’re bringing coding off the screen. With this coding toy your programs come to life in the real world, letting you see them in motion. The unique visual programming language underscores our goal, it is built with kids in mind and it’s the first in its kind that’s made directly for smart devices.
Codie: the robot and the app
Codie is made up of two parts: the cute wooden robot and the intuitive application with the Codie programming language. Kids use the application to create programs which are then transferred and executed by the robot.
With this coding toy makes it fun for children to learn algorithmic thinking. We organized complex robotic code into colorful blocks children can arrange and connect with arrows showing the direction of execution. While having fun, they learn the basics of coding, using real programming patterns, including: if-else structures, loops, variables and subroutines.
The robot is an affordable and fun toy that pairs with the intuitive app. This sturdy robot is stuffed with equipment and sensors that make it responsive and fun. Codie will provide entertainment for the whole family for many hours to come. Codie comes fully assembled, just take it out of the box, pair it with your smartphone via wireless Bluetooth connection and play. The body of the Codie robot is carved out of high-quality wood and every single unit is hand-crafted in our laboratory.
He’s as fast as a little race car, and can be controlled either through the programs a child writes in the app or through a manual interface that includes an on-screen joystick that you can use to direct his movements.
To write a program, kids drag blocks onto the app’s screen to dictate actions like “move,” “turn,” “decide,” “wait,” “sound,” and more. The blocks are connected with arrows, and, when tapped, kids can also customize the actions themselves in more detail to do things like adjust the speed, distance, color, brightness and much more.
Codie Labs raised funding for the project from an institutional investor in Hungary and an individual angel, totaling $250,000 USD. The startup also ran a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo this spring which reached $96,000 and allowed them to sell over 500 robots via pre-orders.
He says that most of those robots will be shipping by Christmas this year, or early 2016. The robots themselves are $199 euros (or roughly $216 USD.) The startup plans to raise an additional seed round early next year to help with marketing efforts and distribution.
Link: Codie
