KAPi Awards Celebrate Best of Breed Products for Kids
Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) January 07, 2015 -- From the maker movement to robotics, Living in Digital Times and Children’s Technology Review have partnered once again to recognize the latest in innovation in children’s technology at the sixth annual Kids@Play Interactive Awards (KAPis). This year’s KAPis are given to those companies and people whose work has really raised the caliber of kid’s entertainment, exploration and learning. Winners have been selected and awards will be handed out a the KAPi cocktail reception, following the Family Tech Summit, at 6pm, Wednesday, January 7 in the Bellini Room, 2006 on Level 2 at the Sands Conventions Center during the 2015 International CES® in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“Kids are tomorrow’s digital citizens and their lives need to be filled with digital play that stretches their imagination and works out their brains” said Robin Raskin, founder and president of Living in Digital Times.
“Each year we get hundreds of nominations and the bar for children’s interactive media continues to rise,” says Warren Buckleitner, editor of Children’s Technology Review, “For kids, digital play is like oxygen and as stewards, we don’t want to pollute that.”
Judges included some of the most prestigious journalists, academics and developers in the kid’s world. All products were created in the 2014 season. The 2015 KAPi Award Winners:
Innovation
Osmo by Tangible Play
The symbolic world of apps jumps into the real world with this $100 kit that contains a simple but ingenious tiny mirror and plastic stand. While users are playing with their tangram blocks in real life, the iPad’s screen is giving them the “atta boys” and keeping score.
Best App For Younger Children
LumiKids By Lumosity
Three timed, leveled logic puzzles stretch the limits of what one can do on an iPad's screen. The more users play, the harder it gets. Just like its adult counterpart, Lumosity, the creators of this pint-sized version believe brains are meant to be trained.
Best App For Older Children
Monument Valley by Ustwo Games
Addicting, beautiful and leveled perfectly to keep users challenged (and confused), this is a set of ten optical illusion maze puzzles that is ideal for a child in need of a challenge. As their fingers drive the transformations, the illusions unfold before their very eyes. Like magic.
Best Maker
Creatorbox by Creatorbox
Everybody knows users can subscribe to a database or a magazine. How about a series of invention kits? These subscription-based maker kits contain monthly challenges for young inventors, including such things as building a catapult. While projects range from decidedly non-tech to high tech, the judges liked the way Creatorbox integrates with littleBits’ robotic parts.
Best Tech Toy
MOSS By Modular Robotics
Turn mechanical cubes into working robots, with this set of snap-together parts. Test the limits of sensors that respond to proximity or light, or mix in a set of rolling cubes to make it all move.
Best Robot
OZOBOT By Evollve Inc
These pocket-sized robots have optical readers and sensors, so they can see, hear and move. The judges liked how users can use a smartphone or tablet to download challenges, or take out their own set of markers and create their very own Ozo paths.
Best Hardware
LeapTV By Leapfrog
Wii, PlayStation, Xbox..... and now LeapTV? Leapfrog is hopping into a new culture, with a plug-in video game console designed to run cartridges with a motion sensing controller and a Kinect-like camera. The judges like to think of it as a young child’s first game machine experience, driven by Leapfrog’s educational content.
Best Family Entertainment
Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved By Harmonix
Harmonix, the creators of Rock Band, Dance Central and Guitar Hero, have done it again -- this time with a collaboration with Walt Disney that leverages the power of the Xbox One camera. Imagine users waving their arms and having a symphonic respond. The mix of quality music and accurate body tracking raise the bar in rhythm games.
Emerging Pioneer
Chip Donohue of the Chicago-based Erikson Institute has been a relentless advocate for Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) with his battle cry of "put some DAP in your app." He helped NAEYC craft a thorough position statement on Technology and Young Children, and recently pulled together a diverse collection of authors to publish a seminal book called "Technology and Digital Media in the Early Years." Few have done so much to merge academia with practice.
Legend
Dean Kamen was into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) before it was sexy. His most famous invention is the Segway. But few people know that in 1989, Kamen founded FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). Today FIRST has many robotic programs, including the First LEGO League.
For updates, follow FamilyTech Summit on Twitter at @FamTechSummit, “like” MommyTech Summit on Facebook and follow the hashtags #KAPICES, #KidsatPlayCES and #FamilyTechCES
About Children’s Technology Review
Founded in 1993, Children’s Technology Review is designed to help parents, librarians and teachers better use technology with children by providing objective, comprehensive coverage of all forms of commercial products. CTR contains no advertising. It is published monthly for $30/year.
About Living in Digital Times
Founded by veteran technology journalist Robin Raskin, Living in Digital Times brings together the most knowledgeable leaders and the latest innovations impacting both technology and lifestyle. It helps companies identify and act on emerging trends, create compelling company narratives, and do better business through strong network connections. Living in Digital Times produces technology conferences, exhibits and events at the International CES and other locations throughout the year by lifestyle verticals. Core brands include Digital Health Summit, FitnessTech Summit, Lifelong Tech, Kids@Play Summit, Family Tech Summit, TransformingEDU, MommyTech TV, Wearables and FashionWare runway show, Mobile Apps Showdown, Last Gadget Standing, Battle of the Bands, and the KAPi Awards. The company also works with various foundations and manages the Appreneur Scholar awards program for budding mobile entrepreneurs. For more information, visit http://www.LivinginDigitalTimes.com and keep up with our latest news on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
About CES
The International CES is the world’s gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for more than 40 years—the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace. As the largest hands-on event of its kind, CES features all aspects of the industry. And because it is owned and produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the technology trade association representing the $211 billion U.S. consumer electronics industry, it attracts the world’s business leaders and pioneering thinkers to a forum where the industry’s most relevant issues are addressed. Follow CES online at CESweb.org and through social media: cesweb.org/social.
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Linda Krebs, LKPR, Inc., +1 (646) 484-4539, [email protected]
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