BTA2023 AWARD-WINNING PRODUCTS ANNOUNCED!

Colo-puter, an IoT educational toy that combines the analog warmth of wood with the digital smart phone

Points of this service
  • A "toy that rolls wooden blocks" that everyone can intuitively understand, and a "smart phone" that works together!
  • And a place for kids and parents to create and share their own new games!
  • It is possible to develop various abilities such as creativity and manual dexterity while having fun!

Due to the spread of the new coronavirus, many of you may be spending more time at home with your children. The item we're going to introduce this time is "Koropyuta", which seems to make the time spent at home more enjoyable. This is an IoT educational toy that allows users to enjoy picture books and games on their smartphones by rolling cylindrical blocks with hiragana written on them onto an attached ramp, and is scheduled to be released on the GREEN FUNDING crowdfunding site on April 21, 2020. The BabyTech.jp editorial team interviewed Mr. Yokota, Mr. Nagashima, and Mr. Kato (titles omitted below) of T.D.S., the company that developed Koropyuta, and asked them about the product, its development, and future plans.

 


Mr. Yokota on the left, Mr. Nagashima on the upper right, and Mr. Kato on the lower right.

We spoke with...

Replug Division, T.D.S. Ltd.
Chiaki Yokota
Kuniko Nagashima
Takehiro Kato

 

When an old-fashioned "toy that rolls wooden blocks" fuses with a smartphone!

Editor:Let's start by asking about the outline and features of Koropyuta.

Yokota: The name "Koropyuta" comes from the image of a wooden hiragana computer. When you roll a wooden block with hiragana characters on it down an attached ramp, the reader reads the RFID tag built into the block. The reader then reads the RFID tag embedded in the block, and if the user rolls the same block on the ramp as the letter that appears in the picture book displayed on the smartphone, the story moves forward. At the moment, we've installed the picture book and a simple game that uses letters that I mentioned earlier in the app. We developed this app to make it more fun than ever for children to learn hiragana and other words at first.