>> LINKITZ - SOCIAL, MODULAR, PROGRAMMABLE TOYS

Introducing a wearable toy, that kids will love and can teach them programming!

I have reported earlier about fashion getting into IoT - but the team over at Linkitz are targeting the children market with a social, modular and programmable electronic toy aimed at getting children interested in software development.

The components that have a three-way connection system blink and buzz and can be rearranged, taken apart and snapped together to change the manner in which they interact with each other - providing children endless possibilities that they can create.

They are the creation of Lyssa Neel, an MIT doctorate with a passion for programming. If they look fun, it’s because there were some young women involved with the research - specifically Neel’s daughters. Lyssa mentions that the idea was sparked after giving them engineering toys - there was a lack of interaction that sparked the foundation of the new toys.

The team won $100,000 in the 2014 N100 Startup Competition and they are currently on a road trip in Shenzen, China, to learn about the manufacturing process - as they document over on their own blog and they seem to be having a good time in the process.

As a programmer myself; I would like to see how these tools work and exactly what foundations are suggested that will help children understand some of the basics. Traditionally, at least in my age, programming was around pointers, shifting bits and having to understand binary - a road block for most people. Linkitz comes with a kid-friendly visual programming language that lets kids change how their links behave.

I look forward to seeing how these devices actually will work together.