Above: Kano provides DIY hardware and free software to help teach kids to love coding.
“Oh my gosh, this computer actually works!” exclaimed a nine-year-old boy when he booted up the Kano PC he’d just built himself. He’d been skeptical. This was not like the sleek, closed devices the boy has at home and at school; he had handled and assembled the actual components of this computer himself. Suddenly, motherboard, memory card, and the HDMI cable were no longer abstract objects.
For instance, a child might be curious about how often her dog drinks water. She can write code that would use a sensor and camera placed next to Fido’s water bowl to snap a digital photo every time the dog trips the sensor. Kano seems determined to help kids unleash their creativity — no matter how frivolous or serious the project — and is filling the gaps between different levels of coding.
Kano’s message has been well-received by students and educators, with more than 100,000 kits shipped to customers in 86 countries. The London-based startup began in 2013 as a Kickstarter project, raising $1.5 million from 13,000 backers. After releasing its initial kits, Kano raised a $15 million series A round in May 2015. To date, the company has received $19 million in total investments from Jim Breyer, Marc Benioff, Martin Sorrell, Index Ventures, James Higa, Troy Carter, and Shana Fisher, among others.
The Camera Kit – a five mega-pixel codeable camera with a Tripwire Sensor to design flashes and filters, and use data triggers to make images, videos and GIFs.
The Pixel Kit – a light board with 128 dazzling pixels and a Tilt Sensor to build games, visualize real world data sourced from the cloud, and create artwork in 1.7 million colors.
The Speaker Kit – a programmable smart speaker with a Gesture Sensor to record, control, and synthesize your own sounds and electronic music.
Above: Kano announces speaker, camera and pixel kits.
These new kits work with Kano’s Computer Kit , which is a single-board Raspberry Pi computer (the “Kano Brain”) and a keyboard, which can connect to Kano’s Screen Kit (or any monitor) or to other devices with built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB. Suggested retail price of the new kits will be $130 each. The Pixel Kit will be the first product to ship, beginning in January 2017. The Computer Kit and Screen Kit are available for purchase now at Kano, Amazon LaunchPad, and through Kano retail partners Toys “R” Us and Barnes and Noble for $150 each.
Another youngster inspired to code.