Three parents -Reni Cao, Jio Zhang, and Susan Rosanthal -were concerned about the screen time of their children, so they left their technical jobs to create a product that encourages children to join the real world, even when helping them to learn a new language. Their move has paid, as the company has recently raised $ 4.8 million in funding.
New launched gadgets are called Dex And on one side looks like a camera lens and a high -tech magnifying glass with a touchscreen on the other side. When children use the device to take pictures of objects, AI uses image recognition techniques to identify objects and translate the word into selected language. It also has interactive story lessons and games.
While child-centered language learning apps such as Duoolingo Kids are present, dex argues that it takes a more attractive approach that emphasizes experiences on hands, allowing children to immerse themselves in the language.
“We are trying to teach authentic language in the real world that is in a way interactive,” Cao told Techcrunch. “Children are not only listening or doing what they are asked to do, but, they are really thinking, making, interacting, running around, and are just eager about things, and are just about things, and acquire the necessary languages related to those concepts and objects.”
Dex is designed for children aged 3 to 8 years and currently supports Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish. It also provides support for 34 dialects, including Egyptian Arabic, Taiwanese Mandarin and Mexican Spanish.
In addition to object recognition, there is a library of interactive stories in the dex that encourages children to actively participate in the story. As the story comes out, children are motivated to respond, such as to greet the characters in the language in which they are learning.
The device comes with a dedicated app to the parents, which comes to see a wide observation of his child’s progress, including the terminology words they have learned, the stories that are associated with, and the number of days he has used dex.
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Additionally, the dex is currently developing a feature that allows children to ask AI chatbot questions and engage in free-form conversations. This feature is already available to some examiners, but the company assumes that it is not ready for a broad rollout. Parents can also be cautious about presenting AI Chatbott for their children.
During our test of Dex, we worked about the possibility of a child learning improper words. The CAO assured us that “rigorous safety signs” are included whenever the large language model is used in vision, logic and text-speakes.
He said, “We always have a safety agent that evaluates the interaction in real time and filters the conversation with a safe stop Word list. The agent will suppress the conversation if any stop words are mentioned, which are included, but are not limited to those related to sexuality, religion, politics, etc., then parents will soon be able to add to personally.”
In addition, it has been said that AI is trained using the same terminology standards as Britannika children and people found in encyclopedia.
In our test, AI successfully ignored the topics related to nudity. However, it recognized the word “gun” and exactly translated, some parents should consider when purchasing the device.
In response to our findings, Cao told us, “Regulation-wise, I am not worried, but I think it is a concern, especially between (some) parents.” He said that these concerns have soon pushed the company to present an option in settings, such as filtering specific words, such as guns, cigarettes, vep pens, fireworks, marijuana and beer bottles.
Dex also has a zero data retention policy. Although this means that there is no risk of storing sensitive or individual images, a negative side may be that the parents are left in the dark that their children are capturing what kind of content.
Dex is also actively working towards obtaining Coppa certification, which will make it in line with the online privacy protection act of children.
The company acquired funding from Clavies, EmbedingVC, Parable and Upskalax. Notable fairy investors include Pinterest founder Ben Silberman, curated co-founder Eduardo Vivas, Lillian Veng, formerly head of security in OpenEA, and Richard Wong (East-Corerrera).
The device is priced at $ 250, which feels standing for the product designed for children. However, the dex hits itself as a more affordable option to hire a tutor, which can charge up to $ 80 per hour, or a language immersion can participate in school, which can cost several hundred to thousands of dollars.
Dex says hundreds of families have already bought devices.
