CINEMOOD: Kid-friendly Portable Mini Cinema

CINEMOOD, a tech startup that has developed a kid-friendly portable mini cinema projector, launched their Indiegogo campaign this month. Besides bringing their product to the US market, the company hopes that the campaign will ignite conversation concerning healthier media consumption habits among families. World-wide shipping is due around November so those of us in Australia can get our hands on this great tech.

Studies show that on average children in the United States spend more than 32 hours a week watching television─ that is roughly 4.6 hours per day. As we grow increasingly aware of the negative effects of too much screen-time (on general health as well as a child’s mental development), this statistic is highly alarming. The parents who founded CINEMOOD were very much driven by this knowledge, as well as the need to provide their kids with an alternative interface for technology.

Michael Bukhovtsev, CEO of CINEMOOD and father of two, came upon the concept of a wireless kid-friendly projector while designing a simple home-theatre for his children. Bukhovtsev was looking for a solution that gave his kids the opportunity to interact with technology in dynamic ways, while at the same time allowing parents curatorial power over the content, which the children were exposed to. Developing a small, easy-to-use projector seemed to address both sides of that equation.

After two years of prototyping and development CINEMOOD was born, and now the projector is set to make its US debut. CINEMOOD enables users to turn any blank wall or ceiling into a brilliant personal theatre. Families can watch pre-selected cartoons and movies, view digital books, listen to audio fairy tales, or even use the device to beam creative play environments onto the walls and ceiling of a room, or to perform shadow puppet shows. The possibilities are indeed limitless! All of them, however, strive to bring families together and expose children to technology in a way that is engaging, rather than isolating.

CINEMOOD has already seen success with its first product version in Europe, and now the company feels ready to expand into the US market; with their Indiegogo campaign this will act as their first step into this new realm. Already things seem to be off to a good start: according to Bukhovtsev, after “only four days of exhibiting at CES in Las Vegas this year”, the company saw interest in their product instantly shoot up, bringing their overall “online pre-order count to well over 15,000”.

Evidently, the demand for a product like CINEMOOD is very real. After all, regulating the amount of time that children interact with screens and gadgets is something that many parents can relate to. "Watching filmstrips and telling stories as a family was a tradition that I grew up with and loved. With the rapid growth of new media, however, this tradition and its ability to bring parents and children together has been lost. I thought it would be exciting to restore such old traditions and merge them with new media. By reimagining content delivery, we essentially bring families closer together", says Bukhovtsev, about the impact of CINEMOOD.

In order to meet the needs of families, CINEMOOD is designed to be as multifunctional as possible. The latest version of the device comes ready with content that has been carefully selected by educators and child psychologists. Cut the Rope (Zeptolab), Kit^n^Kate, Qumi-Qumi (Toonbox), Hooplakidz, and KikOriki are just a few of the names featured on CINEMOOD. What’s more, users can also upload their own content to the device via USB or streaming through Wi-Fi.

Just recently the CINEMOOD team also released its Smart Covers feature. These are themed covers that automatically unlock content to the projector as soon as they are placed on it i.e. the Hooplakidz cover uploads seasons of the cartoon right to the projector.

CINEMOOD also comes with a companion app, compatible with both iOS and Android platforms that allow users to control the device remotely. Parents can limit the amount of time their children interact with the device, or can send their kids video messages while they are out of the house.

At the end of the day, parents want what is best for their child. What’s great about CINEMOOD is that the projector can be whatever a family makes of it. It is a device that has been designed to unleash a creative process and that in and of itself is already a huge step away from the stagnant screens that tend to pull people apart, rather than bring them together.

“I want my children to have many memorable moments, and a happy childhood that they will carry with them forever”, says Bukhovtsev, “that’s why we created CINEMOOD—in order to honour the magic of childhood, and share it with our families as well as others”.

Learn more about CINEMOOD on their website, and follow their campaign on Indiegogo

*CINEMOOD is a cloud-connected mini cinema projector, designed especially for families. Project magic into your home and enjoy carefully curated movies, cartoons, audiobooks, digital books and fairy-tale adventures brought to you by one simple device. To learn more about CINEMOOD, please visit us at www.cinemood.com.