‘

Coding robot launch competition

The smart toy market with SW coding function is on the rise. It is due to the growing interest in SW coding as software (SW) education becomes mandatory in elementary schools in 2019, beginning with middle school next year. The distribution industry is focusing on the smart toy market, which can be manipulated through coding, as the location of traditional toys narrows due to smartphones, online and mobile games.

LEGO announced on July that it will launch `LEGO Boost`, a coding robot for preschoolers and elementary school students, in the US next November. This product is equipped with a sensor that recognizes color, voice, and movement, and can control the movement or sound of the robot using a dedicated app. Once users talk to the robot, it answers and holds user’s hand and play a spitting game. This product can make five models such as robots, cats, vehicles, construction machines and others, and it can attach existing Lego blocks when assembling. Lego first showed this product at the World Electronics Fair (CES) earlier this year.

LEGO introduced `LEGO MINDSTORM` in 1998, a robot with sensors and motors, which was coded as a dedicated programmer app. It also released the robot training tool `Ward` for elementary school students. LEGO Boost is easier than Mindstorm or Poison, and it is developed so that preschool children and elementary school students can easily learn SW programming.

"LEGO Boost has focused on introducing a graphical interface and teaching the basics of coding so that children can understand it." said Jeong Kwon Young, managing director of the LEGO Korea marketing team at the press conference held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Gwanghwamun, Seoul.

Domestic and foreign toy companies, robot companies, and online distributors are also showing smart toy to learn coding principles. The global smart toy market is expected to double from about EUR 3.7 billion (about KRW 4.9 trillion) last year to EUR 7.4 billion (about KRW 9.24 trillion) next year, according to market researcher Euro Monitor.

Mattel, an American Barbie doll maker, is developing a series of smart toys based on speech recognition and artificial intelligence. In 2015, it introduced `Hello Barbie` dolls, which the dolls will respond to when talking with Toy Talk, a speech recognition technology company, and last year released `Smart Toy Bear`, a toy that answers children`s questions. Earlier this year CES also released Amazon Echo and Aristotle, an AI speaker similar to Google Home. Aristotle plays music or reads fairy tales and answers when he speaks.

The US Robotics Wonder Workshop launched `Dash And Dot`, a coding robot for children`s education, in 2014, and it is being used as teaching material for coding classes in more than 10,000 elementary schools in 46 countries and the US and Europe. If users attach a specific button that they input an operation command with a tablet PC or a smartphone app, the robot moves accordingly. It is a way to learn the coding principle through command button combination. Another robot company, Spiro, introduced the BB-8, a miniature robot that can be operated as a smartphone app. If you attach an accessory to your wrist, you can freely manipulate the robot even if you move your wrist.

In Korea, Son Oh-gong is interested in the educational toy market. In 2014, It introduced Smart Toy, which combines ICT technology such as `Sophie Ruby`s novel 3D Magic Pad` and `Poky Peng Talk`. After Son Oh-gong was acquired by Mattel last year, Fisher Price `Fisher Coding Larvae`, a brand of Mattel, was introduced in Korea. In recent years, open market has also introduced smart toys as its own brand (PB) product. Meanwhile, Interpark launched `Coding Playground` with China Smart Toy maker Blockblock. This product is for children ages 7 to 14, who learn the coding principles by assembling or disassembling robot toys and entering various commands.


By Park Min Yeong ironlung@


[ copyright ⓒ The Digitaltimes ]