Telling a toddler to brush their teeth can seem like a nightly wrestling match in your bathroom.
But the new Octopus SmartWatch for kids ages 3 to 8 with icons aims to help with this and other daily habits.
In fact, the Octopus, designed by JOY, has three main functions. It's a clock that teaches children about time using both digital and analog formats. It's a timer that parents can remotely program with pop-up icons to notify children when it's time for certain activities: basketball practice, bath time, cat feeding. And it's an assistant, providing tips, notes, and reminders for both children and parents.
“Studies have shown that children under the age of 8 don’t understand the concept of time, let alone remember what they should be doing at each passing hour,” according to the company. “We’ve designed the first smartwatch that helps them understand how their parents expect them to use their time. We believe this will help children adopt good habits and help them become more responsible.”
Octopus is controlled by an iOS or Android app. It comes with customizable, age-based schedule templates and an optional Gamification feature that allows the child to open the strap. Parents can sync the SmartWatch program via Bluetooth in three different ways, depending on the child's stage of development, and there are 600 stored icons.
Two separate phones can also sync to the same watch – or multiple watches – meaning the Octopus system is flexible enough to allow both parents or guardians to work together if needed. The watch is available in four colours and features a colour OLED display. It comes with a charging cable and USB plug, and JOY claims a battery life of around 96 hours on a full, three-hour recharge.
The Octopus watch is also IP65 waterproof, meaning it can't withstand swimming, but it should survive hand washing.
Modern parents know it can be hard to resist the digitalization of their kids' lives and strike a balance between their responsibilities and playtime. But Octopus seems like a potentially fun experiment that could introduce kids to some of the more useful aspects of technology without tying them to a screen.
The company plans to release its first watches in November 2016.
