The gadget for reading aloud to your kids when you can't be there
An entrepreneur who wanted to read to his daughters when he wasn't at home has come up with a device that enables him to do that
Becoming a father not only gave Israeli entrepreneur Amir Koren different priorities in life, it also led to Sparkup, an educational technology venture that he started with friend and business partner Roei Simantov.
The pair had been running entertainment-related businesses since their teens - organising events, parties and the like - but parenthood brought a different lifestyle and new perspectives. In particular, Koren was struck by a friend's practice of recording himself reading children's books so that his young daughters could still enjoy "story time" with him whenever he had to go away for training as an army reservist.
"It was such a brilliant idea," Koren says.
Building on the concept, the partners at Sparkup created a device called the Magical Book Reader, which allows parents or other family members to record stories so that they can "read aloud" to children even when they are away on trips or bogged down by other duties.
The gadget is fitted with a digital camera and clips on to the back of conventional books. Once the device is turned on, it scans and recognises the page, then plays the corresponding voice recording as the child advances at his or her own pace through the book. And because its technology is image-based, the device can be used for recording multiple languages, making it useful for second-language learning, too.
