IntellePlay: A Personalized Learning System

Extensive research has been conducted that shows classical music can promote brain development, improve brain functions, and alleviate brain disorders and learning disability.  Cognitive research has shown that intelligence has many aspects and people’s strengths in different aspects can be used to personalize learning methods for improved outcomes.

Based on this, we developed a learning system using music programs and fun games for improving children’s mathematical, language, creative, visual/spatial, and motor skills, and memory and sleep. We invented a portable and comfortable device called Music Hat allowing children to listen to our music programs to enhance brain development and functions, and alleviate brain disorders. We created an AI-based app to assess and analyze children’s cognitive and physical development levels to design personalized learning programs, monitor learning progress, and optimize learning outcomes.

Using this learning system, young children can develop important learning skills and improve their intelligence to have better futures.

Brain development in early childhood is critical. Early education can stimulate brain development and functions, which could affect cognitive abilities in adulthood.

Many children are suffering from brain disorders and learning disabilities. In the US alone, 3.7- 7.4 million children have dyslexia, >6 million are diagnosed with ADHD, >1 million have autism, about 3.7 million have sensory processing disorders, > 4 million have anxiety, and 2 million have depression (data from cdc.gov).

In developed countries, many early education programs, books, videos, games, and toys have been used to help young children learn. However, they only teach certain subjects in general and are not developed for individualized learning for children with different learning styles.

Currently 325 million children are living in poverty worldwide, including 15.5 million in the US. These children have little or no access to early education and are at risk of losing cognitive growth stimulated by early education, which is crucial for success in later life.

We are trying to solve these problems with our affordable, comprehensive and personalized early education system designed for young children to stimulate their brain development, alleviate brain disorders and learning disabilities, help them acquire critical learning skills, and improve their intelligence. 

Our product can be used by most children above age 2. For this Solve project, it can be used by children between ages 2-5. 

Our product was developed based on cognitive science research demonstrating the role of classical music in promoting brain development, improve brain functions and alleviating brain disorders. It was also based on the latest theories of human intelligence and our own research findings on factors important for multiple intelligences. 

More importantly, the inventor of our product is an 11 year old gifted student, who as a child herself knows what kind of learning games are most appealing to kids, and what kind of games are both educational and fun to play. She knows first-hand what motivates kids to learn and what skills are useful for kids. Our products were invented by a child and created for children.

Our learning system includes classical music programs and fun games for improving children’s mathematical, language, creative, visual/spatial, and motor skills, as well as memory and sleep. They can listen to our music programs using our Music Hat, and play the fun learning games with their parent/teacher/caregiver and other children.

Our solution is a personalized learning system IntellePlay including:

Music Hat and Music Programs: a portable and comfortable listening device we invented to play classical music programs to improve brain development and functions, and alleviate brain disorders and learning disabilities. It can be combined with our games to enhance learning.

Funtastic Math Games I-IV:

• Funtastic Math Game I: for 2-4 year olds to learn counting numbers
• Funtastic Math Game II: for 3-5 year olds to learn addition/subtraction, and begin to develop number sense
• Funtastic Math Game III: for 3-5 year olds to learn visual math
• Funtastic Math Game IV: for 4-5 year olds to learn multiplication/division and practice basic operations to improve number sense

Funtastic Words Games I-III:

• Funtastic Words Game I: for 2-4 year olds to learn simple words
• Funtastic Words Game II: for 3-5 year olds to learn pre-kindergarten words
• Funtastic Words Game III: for 4-5 year olds to learn advanced words 

Visual Fun Games I-II:

• Visual Fun Game I: for 2-4 year olds to develop simple visual spatial skills
• Visual Fun Game II: for 3-5 year olds to develop advanced visual spatial skills

Funtastic Move Game: a program combining fun movements and physical activities with music programs to develop gross and fine motor skills.

Creatividy Games I-II:

• Creatividy Game I: for 2-4 year olds to play simple imagination and idea synthesis games to inspire creativity
• Creatividy Game II: for 3-5 year olds to play simple imagination, idea synthesis, remote association, divergent and convergent thinking games to cultivate creativity                          

Funtastic Memory Game: for 3-5 year olds to play games to improve their memory.

SleepySound: a listening device placed under pillow to play a music program of rhythmic sound mimicking deep breathing patterns to help children sleep.

AI Program Manager: an app using advanced artificial intelligence technologies to:

• Assess children’s developmental stage, intelligence, and behavior to design personalized learning programs
• Remind children to use the programs
• Record learning results
• Periodically assess children’s progress and modify the learning programs

Reward System: motivate children to learn.

IntellePlay was developed based on advancements in cognitive science showing the effect of classical music on the brain. We designed specific music programs, including ones for music therapy, for young children to listen to promote their brain development and functions, and alleviate brain disorders and learning disabilities.

Our product includes an innovative music listening device we invented that uses bone conduction transducers to transmit music wirelessly from a music player to a user’s inner ear. User can wear the device with any hat or headband, and listen to music discreetly at any place and at any time, without the discomfort of using headphones or ear buds. It can play classical music in the background to stimulate brain functions without interfering with the user’s activities.

IntellePlay was also developed based on research in our understanding of intelligence, mathematics, language, visual spatial and motor learning skills, development of creativity, and mechanisms of memory and sleep. Based on these and findings from our own research on factors associated with multiple intelligences, we created novel games to help young children learn and gain important skills in all of these important areas. We also created novel games for improving memory and an innovative method for helping children sleep, which are important for cognitive development and learning.

IntellePlay is not only a comprehensive learning system, but also uses innovative artificial intelligence technologies we developed to provide design, monitoring, and optimization of personalized learning programs for young children. 

We use several patent-protected technologies in our product. Our Music Hat uses bone conduction transducing and Bluetooth technologies to wirelessly transmit music/sound to the inner ear through bone in the skull so the transducers can be placed on the inside of a hat or headband. The Music Hat is more comfortable and convenient for listening to music than using conventional headphones or ear buds. This innovative personal listening technology is also used in SleepySound to generate sleep-inducing rhythmic sound.

Our AI Program Manager uses advanced artificial intelligence technology embedded in a software program to acquire and analyze data about each child’s learning status to design a personalized learning program, and to monitor each child’s progress with continuous adjustment to achieve an optimized learning outcome.

IntellePlay addresses the unmet need for early childhood education, especially for disadvantaged children:

• Our product prototype has been tested on multiple public and private trials with over 500 children and adults.
• The technology is based on extensive, credible research and clinical studies across multiple disciplines.
• The product is affordable for millions of children, including 385 million children living in poverty.
• For kids who don’t have proper care and early education, our low cost Music Hat and music programs can stimulate their brain development and functions.

• Our Music Hat and therapeutic music programs can help children with brain disorders and learning disabilities, especially those who cannot afford expensive medical interventions.
• Our Music Hat is more comfortable and convenient than headphones and earbuds, so young children can wear it with comfort and ease.
• Unlike existing educational games or toys, our product was created to improve all major cognitive functions for young children by playing our fun games.
• We designed board games for children to play with their families, teachers, and other kids so they will engage in healthy social interactions.   
• Unlike most existing educational products, our games and music programs are designed for young children at different developmental stages, so they can be personalized using our AI-based program manager, which also monitors and optimizes learning.

Thus, our revolutionary learning system IntellePlay will provide the best solution to solve early childhood education problems for all young children.

Since we only started eight months ago and just finished developing the product and testing the prototype, we are not currently serving anyone with our solution. However, we were chosen as an exhibitor by Maker Faire Bay Area in April and showcased our prototype products including Music Hat, Funtastic Math, Funtastic Words, Creatividy and SleepySound. Over 500 children and adults tried out our Music Hat product and more than 300 children engaged in our prototype games. In addition, we received positive feedback from over 400 children, parents and teachers, with many parents requesting to purchase the product.

We plan to market the product soon and expect to sell >5000 units within one year. With rigorous marketing and promotion, we expect 500,000-1,000,000 units will be sold within five years.

One year goals:

• Finish product packaging design and select product material suppliers and manufacturers.
• Start a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds and pre-sell.
• Raise funds for manufacturing and marketing.
• Sell >5,000 units of IntellePlay.
• Promote IntellePlay via social media and web marketing.
• Collaborate with scientists to conduct more studies to test the product and prove its benefit, publish study results in credible journals, and use the publications to communicate benefits to customers.
• Collaborate with schools to further test and market the product.
• Identify potential marketing partners.
• Provide product at large discount or free to 500-1000 children living in poverty.

Five year goals:

• Raise additional funds.
• Conduct rigorous marketing and promotion to sell 500,000-1,000,000 units.
• Establish online sales channels, sell on our own website, on Amazon and other sites.
• Establish retail sales channels, sell in Walmart, Target and other stores.
• Establish sales and marketing partnerships and sell through them.
• Build in international markets such as China, England, EU countries, Korea, Japan, and India. 
• Collaborate with scientists and schools to conduct more studies and publish results. Use the scientific publications to promote the product.
• Improve product design (make Music Hat smaller), develop more games (i.e. games for social emotional learning), and develop interactive online or mobile versions of the games.
• Provide product at large discount or free to >50,000-100,000 children living in poverty in many countries. 

The first barrier is funding. We need investment to manufacture and market the product. The second barrier is product marketing and promotion. We need to find ways to let potential customers know about our product, and also establish marketing and sales channels. The third barrier is to obtain scientific evidence to prove the benefits of our product. These are the main barriers for us to accomplish our short and long term goals.

To overcome the first barrier of funding, we plan to conduct a Kickstarter campaign to both raise the initial funds an also obtain pre-sale customers. In addition, we will seek investment after the Kickstarter campaign to raise more funds for product manufacturing and marketing in large scale. 

To overcome the second barrier of product promotion, we plan to first use various social media to find and inform potential customers. We will use major social media channels such as Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and some social media discussion sites (such as early education sites, children and parenting sites, etc.) to raise awareness of our products. In addition, we will build our website and use search engine optimization to generate traffic to our website.

To overcome the third barrier of product credibility, we will find cognitive scientists to collaborate and conduct scientific research to test our product. We have conducted a preliminary study on multiple intelligence assessment and identification of factors associated with multiple intelligences. We have already enrolled >150 children and their parents in the study. After finding a research collaborator, we will recruit more children and conduct an even larger study to continue testing and improving the effectiveness of our product. Publication of our study results in a well-respected scientific journal will establish credibility and effectiveness of our product, and can also be used in product marketing and promotion.

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Sophia Johnson:

Founder/CEO of Perfecto Play

11 year-old inventor/patent holder of IntellePlay

Inventing since age 7

Finished most high school math and a college math course at Harvard Extension with A

Skilled in many programming languages

Marcus Persson:

16 year old social media expert/marketer

Extensive knowledge and experience in game use/marketing 

Heather Johnson:

Biomedical scientist, inventor and serial entrepreneur

CEO of biotech company

PhD from Columbia University

Postdoctoral at Stanford University studying neural development/diseases

Engineer/AI expert

Manufacturing expert

Advisers:

Director of education center, formerly school principal

Investor, formerly a school principal

CFO/accountant

Our company was founded by Sophia, an extraordinarily creative and talented inventor. Our team includes Marcus, a social media marketing expert with sales experience, Heather, a serial entrepreneur and biomedical scientist with both management expertise and product manufacturing experience, Allan, an engineer and AI expert who has developed AI-based programs and apps, Sheng, an experienced manufacturing manager, two advisors as education experts with years of teaching experience, and a financial advisor with accounting and financial management expertise.

As a child herself, our 11 year old inventor knows what learning games are most appealing to kids, and what type of games are both educational and fun to play. She knows firsthand what motivates kids to learn and what skills are useful for kids. Our products were invented by a child and created for children.

Our team has technical expertise from our talented inventor who created the devices, games, and the AI app, and an experienced engineer who helped to develop the AI app. In addition, our team has a social media marketer, who is a teenager and knows the social media channels kids use and what appeals to them. Several of our team members are both mothers and education experts, who have firsthand knowledge of suitable methods to teach young children.

Thus, our team is best-qualified to bring our revolutionary learning system to millions of children who are in urgent need of effective early childhood education.

We haven’t partnered with any organization yet because we just finished our product development.

But we plan to collaborate with cognitive scientists in research institutions and hospitals to conduct product research. We will also partner with organizations such as preschools, day care centers, after school program providers, education and tutoring centers, outpatient therapy clinics etc. to test and promote our product. In addition, we will collaborate with marketing partners, such as distribution companies, companies selling education toys and games, and book stores, etc. These partners will either help us market the product and take a percentage of our sales, or they can work as wholesalers to directly sell our products. Furthermore, we will find and collaborate with non-profit organizations and charities that focus on education so they may financially support us to provide discounted or free product to children living in poverty. 

We plan to quickly bring our comprehensive learning system IntellePlay to the market. Our product is proprietary with the protection of two worldwide patents. Our customers are primarily parents, but also include schools, daycare centers, and educational centers or institutions. After making a profit, we will provide our product at large discount or free to children living in poverty, especially children in poor Asian and African countries. Our product has a very large market, as hundreds of millions of children can use our product to learn and improve their intelligence. Millions of children with brain disorders or learning disabilities can use our product to alleviate their brain problems or improve their learning abilities. Our product can be used for young children, older children, or even adults. With large customer base, our financial goals for one and five years can be achieved if we successful market the product.  

We hope to raise funds this year to manufacture and market the product. Our estimated gross profit margin is 50-60%. We hope to break even in 2-3 years and start to make a profit in 3-4 years. With increased sales volume, our manufacturing cost can be lowered so we hope to achieve 70% gross profit margin in 3-4 years. By year 3 or year 4, we hope to become profitable and reach financial sustainability.

Our company’s mission aligns with Solve’s goal perfectly. We both want to help young children to learn, especially children living in poverty. We believe our comprehensive and personalized learning system provides the best solution to Solve’s challenge.

• We hope to gain public recognition from participation in Solve and get media exposure.
• We hope to obtain introduction to potential investors, business partners, marketing and sales partners, advisers, mentors, potential employees, and philanthropy organizations through Solve.
• We hope to meet other Solve participants, share ideas and learn from each other.
• Our 11 year old founder and inventor Sophia has a personal wish to become a finalist of Solve so she can pitch our solution at United Nation headquarter. When Sophia was visiting New York City and on a tour at UN five years ago, she saw an exhibit showing children living in poverty in many countries, and was told that these kids had no school to attend. She told the lady leading the tour at UN that she wanted to help these children. The lady encouraged her and said when she grew up, she could help these children. Sophia always remembers this experience and those children’s pictures. Now she has developed a learning system that can help these children to learn and improve their cognitive functions so they can have better futures. Sophia hopes to return to UN to pitch her idea. It would be a dream come true for her!

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We would like to partner with companies selling educational products or toys so they can sell our product through their sales channels. We can sell our product to them at a wholesale price or give them a portion of sales revenue. Such organizations include retail companies, online sales companies, and companies selling through social media.

We will also partner with organizations such as preschools, day care centers, after school program providers, education and tutoring centers, outpatient therapy clinics etc. We can collaborate with them to test and use our product in their organizations. They will receive a portion of sales revenue.

We would like to partner with non-profit organizations and philanthropy organizations that focus on education. They can give us grants, or buy products from us so they can provide our product for free to children living in poverty.

We would like to apply for the AI Innovations Prize. We will use the prize to improve our AI-based Program Manager by:

• Improving the core machine learning algorithms to improve the accuracy and extent of personalization, and the effectiveness and predictive power of the program
• Extending the training database from which predictive inferences are made to include a wider cross section of learning conditions, child abilities, aptitudes and developmental stages
• Significantly expanding the user base from which the data is drawn

This will enable us to do more research and data analysis, improve our games, and provide more effective personalized learning. From the data analysis and AI research, we will discover new insights in learning, cognitive functions and brain disorders that can advance our understanding of early childhood education, human brain and intelligence. 

We would like to apply for Innovation for Women Prize, because although our product applies equally to girls and boys and all parents, we feel specialized research and benefits apply to the critical role mothers play in early childhood nurture and development. In addition, single mothers are over-represented in the under-served and financially challenged population and in many parts of the world facing poverty, and they have additional child development challenges. Our educational games and mobile app are particularly cost effective and accessible for these women. This will also ensure that these women are well represented in our AI and training database, and that their developmental challenges and the predictive inferences are applicable to them. We will use the prize to educate mothers about how they can improve early childhood education, and how our learning system can help their children. We will also use a portion of the prize to provide our product free of charge to some mothers who cannot afford to buy the product.

We will use the prize to improve our AI-based Program Manager by adding more functions, increasing analysis power, and extending the database to collect data from more users. This will enable us to conduct more research and data analysis to improve our games and provide more effective personalized learning. From the data analysis and AI research, we may also discover new insights in learning, cognitive functions and brain disorders that can advance our understanding of education, human brain and intelligence.

We will use the following measures to ensure secure and responsible collection, use and maintenance of user data:

• Appropriate disclosures provided to all users.
• Best practices will be used to remove personally identifiable information and anonymization and pseudonymisation of data entered into the database.
• GPDR compliance with data from Europe.
• HIPAA compliance for data containing medical information.

The best practices including but not limited to:

• The AI Program Manager is password-protected.
• All data collected by the AI Program will be securely transmitted and stored.
• The data collected will only be used for our product and research to improve the product.
• The data will only be accessible to company employees and researchers, who must sign a confidentiality agreement not to disclose any data or user information to outsiders, and not to use the data for other purposes.
• The data or user information will only be shared with outside research collaborators with limited access to data for research purposes only.