Amazon introduces Amazon Glow, an interactive video calling device for kids and families – TechCrunch

Amazon today introduced Amazon Glow, a new interactive device for families that allows children to interact with family members and other distant loved ones through video calls. While somewhat of a competitor to Facebook’s line of Portal devices, which also largely aim to connect families through video, Amazon Glow differentiates itself by offering more than just a connected screen experience. It also uses technology to create an interactive and projected space in front of the device to provide a surface for virtual activities – like games, art, puzzles, etc. – to give the feeling of an experience in person,

To do this, Amazon Glow combines immersive projection, sensing technologies, and video in one device. Unlike other smart displays on the market, the Glow doesn’t look like a small TV. Instead, its 8-inch screen rises vertically, and a projector creates a 19-inch touchscreen space in front of the screen for playing virtual games and participating in other activities with distant family members who participate on the screen. their own tablets.

This game takes place on a special mat, which is also included with the device.

With Amazon Glow, kids and loved ones can play games like chess, checkers, fish fishing, or memory match. They can choose from thousands of children’s books to read together or draw using digital pencils, crayons, brushes or spray paint, among other activities. The idea is to make remote digital reading more like the kind of experience you would have if you were in the same room as the other person.

Amazon Glow can also do things that combine physical objects and digital play. For example, it can scan the child’s favorite toy and then turn it into a personalized puzzle by projecting the digital scan onto the flat surface in front of the device. The child then breaks the digital scan into pieces with his hand to make a puzzle. Or they can digitize a drawing they made on paper and then turn it into a new work of art, with the help of a family member, drawing digitally on the scanned version.

It also comes with something called “Glow Bits,” which are physical objects designed to work with the new device. The first Glow Bits kit is the Tangram puzzle game, where the child uses the puzzle pieces to solve challenges while the remote family member plays using digital puzzle shapes on their tablet screen.

At the launch, Glow will be supporting special activities from children’s entertainment favorites like Anna and Elsa from “Frozen;” Woody and Buzz from Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story”; Mattel Barbie and Hot Wheels characters; SpongeBob SquarePants from Nickelodeon and Dora the Explorer; Elmo, Zoe, others from “Sesame Street” and others.

The device is mainly aimed at families who wish to stay in touch with others from a distance. This could be used with families where a parent travels a lot, with grandparents who live far away, etc. It could also come in handy in this era of a pandemic, where families are spending more time isolated from each other for the safety of Covid.

Of course, Amazon Glow doesn’t allow the child to call anyone they want. A parent or guardian will first need to set up Amazon Glow by giving consent and pre-approving the contacts the child is allowed to call. In this way, parents could restrict the device only to family members or trusted friends of the family. And at any time, the parent can turn off the cameras and microphone by closing the device’s physical privacy shutter.

Amazon Glow is also not an Alexa device, so no voice or video recordings are collected. It also does not track or record location data or even drawings made.

However, Amazon will keep things like profile preferences and activity history to suggest relevant activities and content available with the included Amazon Kids + membership that families may want to try.

The device will ultimately retail for $ 299.99, but will launch with a discounted price of $ 249.99. It comes with the mat, a mat case, the Tangram Bits puzzle game, and a one-year Amazon Kids + membership. (Amazon Kids + is a paid service that offers unlimited access to thousands of books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, games, and premium skills for kids for Alexa.)

Amazon Glow is not yet widely available.

Instead, customers will need to request an invitation to join the Early Access Program at www.amazon.com/glow. The first devices will then be shipped to U.S. customers in the coming weeks, Amazon said.

Developers are encouraged to apply to access the SDK, which will be available in the first half of 2022.