Comment by MBCook
1 year ago
Awesome.
Reminded me of Yoto, an internet radio style thing for kids that uses little NFC cards.
Techmoan reviewed it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mQECKOkkqk
Less directly was Tonies, an audio player for kids that uses NFC on Skyrim style figures to trigger stories.
Techmoan did a video on that too (it’s how I know about both): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9RbMMJRxzw
If you are looking for a FOSS alternative to tonies, yoto and such I would also recommend the DIY TonUINO project.
The boards are built into boxes, toys (from fire engines to plush) and whatever sparks imagination. https://discourse.voss.earth/t/tonuino-gehaeuse-galerie/786/...
Most of the community speaks German, but there is also an English section https://discourse.voss.earth/c/international/11
The source code is in English and the schematics language independent. https://github.com/tonuino/TonUINO-TNG
There is also the similar Phoniebox community which is using Rasperry Pis: https://phoniebox.de/
Here is my build that fits into a wooden police bus. The figures put on the driver seat start the music: https://github.com/Bronkoknorb/hermibox
Phoniebox is what I went with.
Very fun to build, highly customizable and good for both beginner plug n play options. I enjoyed taking the old Fisher Price music box record player apart and turning it into an NFC based record player.
Lots of other great examples in the yearly showcase threads
https://github.com/MiczFlor/RPi-Jukebox-RFID/discussions/211...
My kids (2,4yo) have one each. They were recommended by a friend who has one for their child. Honestly one of the best pieces of tech I've used in a while.
The app is thoughfully made with exactly the sort of features you'd want (alarms, separate volume limits for day/night, night light with changeable colours, morning alarm, bed/wake colours so the kids know when they should be asleep/awake; though my kids don't pay any attention to it, etc). Once you've scanned a card you own, you can activate it from your mobile app so when you're travelling you don't have to take all of the cards with you and risk losing them (though you do need to have WiFi for the Yoto to control it that way; I use my phone hotspot when we're places with no WiFi).
They also have a couple of radio stations, fun educational one which is different every day, like a radio station, and a music one, which switches to bedtime music after bed time and plays curated bedtime lullabies and the sort of things you'd expect for sleep music for children.
There's loads of educational cards (my 4yo loves the "adventures" series with "missy" where they explore different things about the world; under the sea, space, rainforests, etc), there's stories, and there's music, there's also a decent second-hand marketplace around here on Gumtree where people sell the cards their children have grown out of, though they do hold much of their value.
The ability to record your own cards is also a huge win; they give you (I believe) 500MB of storage for each card you buy (at ~£2 each), and you can record your own readings of things, or upload mp3s (we've made some Yoto music cards for CDs we own but they don't make cards for).
We take them with us when we travel, but intend to buy the Yoto Minis which are much more portable for that purpose.
I like that you can get other people (i.e. grandparents) to join your yoto "family" and have them record things via the app and it transfers to your card.
My wife and I are both in the Yoto family, and both have full access, so a grandparent could do the same. Nice idea!
There is also this 37C3 Talk about Tonies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNufX-tss5M
Also a big fan of Yoto. Although, ironically, the greatest use for us is its use as a wakeup light it has around the base.
My daughter knows that the Yoto is in charge of when she needs to stay in bed or when she can walk around. "When the light is red, stay in bed."
We tried that with our children but neither of them pay any attention, despite our best efforts.
There's also an RPI based version at https://github.com/MiczFlor/RPi-Jukebox-RFID
Or one for arduino https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41500071
Which was also forked for ESP32 and has its own community https://github.com/biologist79/ESPuino
Cool, thanks. The nice thing about the Pi one is that it (used to, at least) support Spotify and various streaming services. After a quick look I can't see that feature on those microcontroller versions.
Big fan of the Yoto! The fact you can easily record your own content (grandparents reading stories, etc.) is great.
Also a big fan of the Yoto player, it's helped our daughter stay in her room at bedtime.
For tinkering, there's an unofficial API (WIP)[0] to interact with the player, integration with Home Assistant[1], and Yoto's sample app[2].
[0]: https://github.com/cdnninja/yoto_api
[1]: https://github.com/cdnninja/yoto_ha
[2]: https://github.com/yotoplay/yoto-sample-app
We love our Yoto!
I have no use for one but after watching the video I kind of wanted one anyway.
My wife actually liked them so much after buying them for our kids that she bought one to listen to music and podcasts around the house.
My daughter (almost 2) loves her Yoto and brings it everywhere. The NFC card to play music means she can (and has) put peanut butter in the card slot and it doesn't matter.
there's a similar one in france: https://www.mybookinou.com , they use it in nursery school
> Less directly was Tonies, an audio player for kids that uses NFC on Skyrim style figures to trigger stories.
My youngest, at 16, still loves the Tonie Box. She uploads random stuff to their web portal and plays it quietly at night. Her sister, in the top bunk, had a string / pulley connected to the figurine so that she could restart the music from her bed by lifting it just a little bit and putting it back down.