Meet Moxie, a robotic friend designed for kids
The robotic companion is designed to support social, emotional and cognitive development in children aged 5 to 10, through game-based learning and lessons in eye contact. and turn-based. Launched in 2020, Moxie was developed by Embodied, a robotics company based in Pasadena, California.
“Our shared vision is to create robots that benefit society,” said Paolo Pirjanian, founder and CEO of Embodied. The former NASA roboticist and scientist founded the company in 2016 and oversaw the creation of Moxie.
Pirjanian says the animated bot builds relationships with children by “teaching kids about how to parse and label their various emotions.”
Armed with a microphone, camera, and sensor, Moxie was created with the expertise of technologists, child development experts, and storytellers from Disney and the Jim Henson Company. In 2020, the Moxie was named one of Time’s top inventions of the year.
For Pirjanian, Moxie is an attempt to rethink what human-machine interaction might look like: by creating a socially and emotionally intelligent robotic friend.
“We really have the potential to help the next generation of young people with much higher EQ and soft skills that will help them grow into healthier and more balanced people in society,” says Pirjanian.
Watch the video to learn more.