Bookinou is the first screenless audio reader for children 3-7 years old featuring the recorded voices of their loved ones. Bookinou aims at encouraging kids to read by replacing smartphones and tablets with books. Family members can record the stories of their choice using their own voices with the free companion application. Then children will listen to the stories recorded by their loved ones using the Bookinou audio player (see photo) while looking or reading the related book.
The book and the recorded story are linked by an electronic sticker that is configured and pasted on the registered book that can be recognized by the Bookinou system. The story begins when the kid passes the book on Bookinou.
Ten years in the smartphone era and today, many health experts and parents fear for the children’s well-being when they get increasingly addicted to long hours of screen time. According to this Raise Smart Kids article, there is little scientific data available from pediatric studies to prove screen time could be bad for kids, however, the World Health Organization and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children between 2 and 5 should be limited to one hour of screen time per day.
Amazingly, many high profile technologists from Silicon Valley who spend their time promoting mobile usage and designing addictive smartphone applications do not want their own kids anywhere near smartphones or tablets.
It looks like Bookinou is addressing a need for kids’ healthy development and learning habits; in fact, the idea came from the wife of Co-founder & CEO Vincent Gunther, who is a speech therapist. She was looking for a solution to make children read between their sessions with her.
The startup was founded in February 2018 by co-founders Vincent Gunther (CEO) and Guillaume Chanteloube (CTO) and successfully completed its crowdfunding campaign in May 2018. Bookinou started shipping to thousands of families in November 2019 in Europe.
Come and check out Bookinou at CES 2020, at the Sands Hall G, booth #50819.
Spec highlights
- No sound waves for children
- Small and nomadic (dimensions: 14 x 15 x 3 cm)
- A capacity of more than 100 stories
- 10 hours of listening time
- Rechargeable battery (USB)
- Free Android and iOS application
- Speaker and headphone jack
- Without screen display
- Works with all books
What is in the box?
- A Bookinou device
- A micro USB cable
- A book already registered
- 5 audio stories already recorded
- 6 electronic stickers
- The mobile application is free on Android and iOS
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