I have an extremely similar setup for my 3yr old. He has his NFC cards and select from stuff we find suitable. The TV comes on, one episode runs, TV goes off.
He's not fighting over the remote and he has agency. And he's certainly not stumbling his way through YouTube on a tablet.
No ads. Very nice for him. It's not yet necessary to track his usage. But I'm well prepared for it.
Home Assistant works very well for these cases. I'm sad that Netflix&Co. do not publicize their urls/intents/etc. for smart TVs. I'd be happy to call an episode directly.
This setup therefore needs to run through my own media server and that's why I sometimes have to resort to pirate-y means, even though I have licenses to watch it.
> I'm sad that Netflix&Co. do not publicize their urls/intents/etc. for smart TVs. I'd be happy to call an episode directly.
I haven't really tried this myself, but this Stack Overflow question seems to have found a solution[0]. Since you're already using Home Assistant, you might want to check out the Google Cast integration[1] although Netflix doesn't currently seem to have a documented solution.
This is a really cool project, but also way beyond the skills of an average person.
I don’t know If I am becoming old fashioned, but I feel things were simpler when I was a kid, we had DVD player and we would come over to a friends house and watch a movie. We even found someone’s porn collection!
I feel this issue is endemic through all of society - you have to spend more and more of your IQ points figuring out basic shit, and eventually it’s gets too much and you have no IQ points left to figure out big questions in life
My kids (2,4yo) have one each. They were recommended by a friend who has one for their child. Honestly one of the best pieces of tech I've used in a while.
The app is thoughfully made with exactly the sort of features you'd want (alarms, separate volume limits for day/night, night light with changeable colours, morning alarm, bed/wake colours so the kids know when they should be asleep/awake; though my kids don't pay any attention to it, etc). Once you've scanned a card you own, you can activate it from your mobile app so when you're travelling you don't have to take all of the cards with you and risk losing them (though you do need to have WiFi for the Yoto to control it that way; I use my phone hotspot when we're places with no WiFi).
They also have a couple of radio stations, fun educational one which is different every day, like a radio station, and a music one, which switches to bedtime music after bed time and plays curated bedtime lullabies and the sort of things you'd expect for sleep music for children.
There's loads of educational cards (my 4yo loves the "adventures" series with "missy" where they explore different things about the world; under the sea, space, rainforests, etc), there's stories, and there's music, there's also a decent second-hand marketplace around here on Gumtree where people sell the cards their children have grown out of, though they do hold much of their value.
The ability to record your own cards is also a huge win; they give you (I believe) 500MB of storage for each card you buy (at ~£2 each), and you can record your own readings of things, or upload mp3s (we've made some Yoto music cards for CDs we own but they don't make cards for).
We take them with us when we travel, but intend to buy the Yoto Minis which are much more portable for that purpose.
My daughter (almost 2) loves her Yoto and brings it everywhere. The NFC card to play music means she can (and has) put peanut butter in the card slot and it doesn't matter.
> Less directly was Tonies, an audio player for kids that uses NFC on Skyrim style figures to trigger stories.
My youngest, at 16, still loves the Tonie Box. She uploads random stuff to their web portal and plays it quietly at night. Her sister, in the top bunk, had a string / pulley connected to the figurine so that she could restart the music from her bed by lifting it just a little bit and putting it back down.
Amazing write up and work in general putting this together - this is such an ideal form of the word "hack" in its incredibly low cost, durability, and usefulness.
I was staggered when I saw your build cost list - I know ESPs are in the realm of "Cheap AF" but all of those NFC cards also for $9?! This is one of the few reasons I would shop Alibaba! We're talking around $15 total for the full NFC setup if you can print/rig yourself a case! (yes, of course, another $X for screens, sound etc)
I have run into such a crazy amount of cool hacky kid tech in the past couple of days for some reason (this and Makey Makey), and am so lucky to have done so. I can't wait to outfit my kids with this, it is going to blow their minds.
I want to hook it up to Jellyfish because I feel Plex is total marketing trash these days but as soon as I can get time I am all over this.
You can get loads of NFC tags as stickers extremely cheap. I think using the cards is better here just for durability but if you're willing to put in a bit more DIY and accept a slightly less durable final product you could print it on a heavy card stock and stick one of the innumerable NFC stickers to that then laminate.
The author himself pointed out in the end of the article that blurays are cheap- in my view they provide a close enough physical experience. I would probably stick with Blu-ray approach?
The movies visible in the photos in the article, and their runtimes in minutes, are:
94 The Good Dinosaur
92 Trolls
98 Wall-E
88 The Lion King
103 Moana
81 Toy Story
91 Trolls World Tour
95 Inside Out
103 Frozen II
95 A Bug's Life
> We have two boys, and the eldest is permitted a 30-minute TV session in the morning and another in the evening.
So...if one of them wants to watch The Lion King or Toy Story they have to split it over at least 3 viewing sessions split over at least 2 days? And for anything else on that list they need to split it over at least 4 viewing sessions?
That seems overly restrictive. Yes, limiting kid's TV time is probably a good idea, but would it really hurt to have some flexibility so that they can finish a movie in one session? Maybe let them bank sessions, so they can say skip morning TV for 3 days, and apply that time to the 4th day's evening to get a slot for a whole movie.
This is so cool! I do something similar for music - I have posters up for albums, and a small NFC tag is embedded behind the poster, so tapping my phone to the poster’s corner and clicking the notification begins playing it immediately. I really want to make a collection of cassette-or-record-style plastic cards with album art and NFC tags, and hook it up to a speaker, so I can place my album on a pedestal and it starts playing immediately.
This feels like a new genre of hardware hacking to me, where someone is motivated to make a device out of compassion for their family or others. It reminds me of this instance where someone designed their own peristaltic pump to ensure their grandfather can eat:
I seem to recall another similar device to this posted on HN also, but with audiobooks.
On an unrelated note, the modern digital age does deprive me of my longtime love of removable media, whether analogue or digital. There's a mechanical satisfaction in having a physical token which is decisively inserted into something. USB drives just don't have the kinetic enjoyment of a floppy disk or tape. (Clearly the next iteration of the OP's design needs a motorised NFC card loader, ATM-style. ;))
This is great, I looked into doing something similar when my daughter was little. I didn't get very far and she learned how to use the remote control pretty quickly. I honestly think it was better for her to do it the 'old' way as she's pretty digitally savvy (for her age) than I would have expected.
I remember when I was little I figured out how to use the VHS to set timers record shows etc, I think making things difficult is useful, it forces some learning to get a 'reward'.
You can even do QR code reading via a web-page, and "add-to-homepage" if you wanted to put it onto an iPad.
Obviously the OP project is better thought out, but it's quite good to learn different bits and pieces and strategies about deep linking and internal media.
I actually set that system up and it was awesome! Really was cool and fun to have the little cards, look through them and then "tap" to start the album. Unfortunately I needed the Raspberry Pi for an emergency and then have never fot around to running again. I fear now, with all the SONOS fun (that has destroyed my 8 speaker setup :'( ), it won't work any more.
Thanks for sharing that! I built something similar but I was talking directly to Spotify and outputting through the RasPi. I had no idea Sonos provided an http api. I thought they were locked down. Maybe worth another go!
I made a similar system but for music, using QR codes on plastic cards and a webcam, when my daughter was 1. After a year or so we switched to just having a standalone numkey pad where she could just punch in numbers from a jukebox-style catalog. https://github.com/dmd/nkplay/
She's now 10, and knows ~100 playlists by number. "I want to listen to 37!"
We realised that even a lot less cool than nfc, just put an inexpensive blueray reader + disc movies next to the tv and no internet connection was the best option for us.
for anyone that's a retro gamer that plays roms / emulators etc.. there's a great project with tons of great artists making prints called TapTo. Most of the setups are with a Mister FPGA setup, but it works with pretty much any setup with a bit of tweaks. I really dig the idea and may integrate one into an arcade cabinet in the office.
This is an awesome example of the kind of innovation which overlong copyright prevents.
There’s no particularly good reason that it should be legally impermissible for someone to build and sell a system like this loaded with movies from before, say, 2010 (or 2000, or whatever), but instead what the prospective entrepreneur would be legally able to include would be … Steamboat Willie, and other films of that vintage (as an aside, while Disney’s had a pretty rough couple of years, I’m pretty sure that Steamboat Willie being out of copyright has nothing to do with any of that).
This sort of experience shouldn’t be limited to children of high-tech folks with access to 3D printers: it should be possible for any child — or adult!
If there's a business case to be made, companies like Netflix might release a physical product for this... but I doubt they would, because of the investment and time required vs the revenue. Spotify tried something with an in-car device, but they cancelled and recalled the product pretty quickly.
Streaming services rely on volume; for them, hardware just isn't worth it.
Cool use of NFC tags! I remember seeing a similar idea with album art covering the walls, and you could hold your phone up to read an NFC tag hidden on the back to stream that album on the stereo.
Seconded. The Yoto is great. It also supports arbitrary MP3 assignment to their NFC cards. It’s all proprietary but has been rock solid over multiple years.
Soon, your sons will learn how to hack into this system, bypass your time limits, use the NFC cards you provided to play other cartoons, or convert your NFC reader into a room door lock.
I discovered how cheap NFC tags and readers were a few years ago and now I have completed several hobby projects based on that concept.
When we buy books for our younger nieces and nephews we buy companion stuffed animals and then sew an NFC tag (the small quarter size ones) into them with the YouTube read-along url encoded on it.
Really cool! I want this for my own vinyl so I can physically flip through my collection (with nfc tags stuck on) then place my sleeve of choice on a stand (with embedded nfc reader) to listen to the “vinyl” without having to touch a computer. That would be amazing and you’ve just proved it’s totally doable.
Love seeing fun ideas for NFCs, I went into a bit of a dive on NFC/RFID tech a while back after hearing about the game Dropmix (which used really cool tech I haven't seen anywhere else) and it feels like there could be so much room for fun tactile experiences with some of the protocols.
[+] [-] maweki|1 year ago|reply
He's not fighting over the remote and he has agency. And he's certainly not stumbling his way through YouTube on a tablet. No ads. Very nice for him. It's not yet necessary to track his usage. But I'm well prepared for it.
Home Assistant works very well for these cases. I'm sad that Netflix&Co. do not publicize their urls/intents/etc. for smart TVs. I'd be happy to call an episode directly.
This setup therefore needs to run through my own media server and that's why I sometimes have to resort to pirate-y means, even though I have licenses to watch it.
[+] [-] JAlexoid|1 year ago|reply
That is an intentional marketing move. If you bypass the loading screen, you're also bypassing advertising for their content.
It's in Netflix's interest for you to be aware of their new releases or suggestions. They want you to see the loading screen.
The last thing they want is for you to start thinking that paying them is no longer worth the value.
[+] [-] michaelmior|1 year ago|reply
I haven't really tried this myself, but this Stack Overflow question seems to have found a solution[0]. Since you're already using Home Assistant, you might want to check out the Google Cast integration[1] although Netflix doesn't currently seem to have a documented solution.
[0] https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18217559/launching-andro...
[1] https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/cast/
[+] [-] ClumsyPilot|1 year ago|reply
I don’t know If I am becoming old fashioned, but I feel things were simpler when I was a kid, we had DVD player and we would come over to a friends house and watch a movie. We even found someone’s porn collection!
I feel this issue is endemic through all of society - you have to spend more and more of your IQ points figuring out basic shit, and eventually it’s gets too much and you have no IQ points left to figure out big questions in life
[+] [-] squeed|1 year ago|reply
There is also an NFC tag that will turn off all the lights and turn on a disco ball :-).
[+] [-] A4ET8a8uTh0|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] richardlblair|1 year ago|reply
I'm curious how you track that? I don't have HA connected to plex yet, but I will. I suppose there might be an event when the 'track' changes?
[+] [-] unknown|1 year ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] hinkley|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] MBCook|1 year ago|reply
Reminded me of Yoto, an internet radio style thing for kids that uses little NFC cards.
https://us.yotoplay.com/
Techmoan reviewed it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mQECKOkkqk
Less directly was Tonies, an audio player for kids that uses NFC on Skyrim style figures to trigger stories.
https://us.tonies.com/
Techmoan did a video on that too (it’s how I know about both): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9RbMMJRxzw
[+] [-] marc136|1 year ago|reply
The boards are built into boxes, toys (from fire engines to plush) and whatever sparks imagination. https://discourse.voss.earth/t/tonuino-gehaeuse-galerie/786/...
Most of the community speaks German, but there is also an English section https://discourse.voss.earth/c/international/11
The source code is in English and the schematics language independent. https://github.com/tonuino/TonUINO-TNG
[+] [-] alias_neo|1 year ago|reply
The app is thoughfully made with exactly the sort of features you'd want (alarms, separate volume limits for day/night, night light with changeable colours, morning alarm, bed/wake colours so the kids know when they should be asleep/awake; though my kids don't pay any attention to it, etc). Once you've scanned a card you own, you can activate it from your mobile app so when you're travelling you don't have to take all of the cards with you and risk losing them (though you do need to have WiFi for the Yoto to control it that way; I use my phone hotspot when we're places with no WiFi).
They also have a couple of radio stations, fun educational one which is different every day, like a radio station, and a music one, which switches to bedtime music after bed time and plays curated bedtime lullabies and the sort of things you'd expect for sleep music for children.
There's loads of educational cards (my 4yo loves the "adventures" series with "missy" where they explore different things about the world; under the sea, space, rainforests, etc), there's stories, and there's music, there's also a decent second-hand marketplace around here on Gumtree where people sell the cards their children have grown out of, though they do hold much of their value.
The ability to record your own cards is also a huge win; they give you (I believe) 500MB of storage for each card you buy (at ~£2 each), and you can record your own readings of things, or upload mp3s (we've made some Yoto music cards for CDs we own but they don't make cards for).
We take them with us when we travel, but intend to buy the Yoto Minis which are much more portable for that purpose.
[+] [-] zwirbl|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] dustincoates|1 year ago|reply
My daughter knows that the Yoto is in charge of when she needs to stay in bed or when she can walk around. "When the light is red, stay in bed."
[+] [-] nsteel|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] cjrp|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] sphars|1 year ago|reply
For tinkering, there's an unofficial API (WIP)[0] to interact with the player, integration with Home Assistant[1], and Yoto's sample app[2].
[0]: https://github.com/cdnninja/yoto_api
[1]: https://github.com/cdnninja/yoto_ha
[2]: https://github.com/yotoplay/yoto-sample-app
[+] [-] declan_roberts|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] tapoxi|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] namdnay|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] fullstop|1 year ago|reply
My youngest, at 16, still loves the Tonie Box. She uploads random stuff to their web portal and plays it quietly at night. Her sister, in the top bunk, had a string / pulley connected to the figurine so that she could restart the music from her bed by lifting it just a little bit and putting it back down.
[+] [-] bigfatfrock|1 year ago|reply
I was staggered when I saw your build cost list - I know ESPs are in the realm of "Cheap AF" but all of those NFC cards also for $9?! This is one of the few reasons I would shop Alibaba! We're talking around $15 total for the full NFC setup if you can print/rig yourself a case! (yes, of course, another $X for screens, sound etc)
I have run into such a crazy amount of cool hacky kid tech in the past couple of days for some reason (this and Makey Makey), and am so lucky to have done so. I can't wait to outfit my kids with this, it is going to blow their minds.
I want to hook it up to Jellyfish because I feel Plex is total marketing trash these days but as soon as I can get time I am all over this.
[+] [-] rtkwe|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] open-paren|1 year ago|reply
https://github.com/jellyfin/jellyfin-androidtv/discussions/3...
[+] [-] ClumsyPilot|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] vdfs|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] tzs|1 year ago|reply
So...if one of them wants to watch The Lion King or Toy Story they have to split it over at least 3 viewing sessions split over at least 2 days? And for anything else on that list they need to split it over at least 4 viewing sessions?
That seems overly restrictive. Yes, limiting kid's TV time is probably a good idea, but would it really hurt to have some flexibility so that they can finish a movie in one session? Maybe let them bank sessions, so they can say skip morning TV for 3 days, and apply that time to the 4th day's evening to get a slot for a whole movie.
[+] [-] sodality2|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] hlandau|1 year ago|reply
This feels like a new genre of hardware hacking to me, where someone is motivated to make a device out of compassion for their family or others. It reminds me of this instance where someone designed their own peristaltic pump to ensure their grandfather can eat:
https://hackaday.com/2015/11/10/3d-printed-peristalic-pump-h...
I seem to recall another similar device to this posted on HN also, but with audiobooks.
On an unrelated note, the modern digital age does deprive me of my longtime love of removable media, whether analogue or digital. There's a mechanical satisfaction in having a physical token which is decisively inserted into something. USB drives just don't have the kinetic enjoyment of a floppy disk or tape. (Clearly the next iteration of the OP's design needs a motorised NFC card loader, ATM-style. ;))
[+] [-] illwrks|1 year ago|reply
I remember when I was little I figured out how to use the VHS to set timers record shows etc, I think making things difficult is useful, it forces some learning to get a 'reward'.
[+] [-] ramses0|1 year ago|reply
https://blog.fuzzymistborn.com/homeassistant-and-catt-cast-a...
You can cast YouTube URLs directly, as well as general media files over the local network.
My theory is QR-codes up to a camera: http://192.168.1.123/randomvid.php?topic=XYZ => shuf | head -1 | catt --target=$MY_TV
You can even do QR code reading via a web-page, and "add-to-homepage" if you wanted to put it onto an iPad.
Obviously the OP project is better thought out, but it's quite good to learn different bits and pieces and strategies about deep linking and internal media.
[+] [-] cynod|1 year ago|reply
Reminds me of this Raspberry Pi + SONOS project from a few years back:
https://www.hackster.io/mark-hank/sonos-spotify-vinyl-emulat...
I actually set that system up and it was awesome! Really was cool and fun to have the little cards, look through them and then "tap" to start the album. Unfortunately I needed the Raspberry Pi for an emergency and then have never fot around to running again. I fear now, with all the SONOS fun (that has destroyed my 8 speaker setup :'( ), it won't work any more.
[+] [-] bentt|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] dmd|1 year ago|reply
She's now 10, and knows ~100 playlists by number. "I want to listen to 37!"
[+] [-] niedbalski|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] edu|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] hinkley|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] ganoushoreilly|1 year ago|reply
https://github.com/TapToCommunity/tapto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73Kx3jwyk0U
[+] [-] jonwinstanley|1 year ago|reply
For v2 I'd say the NFC cards be the size and shape of a VHS and you have to leave them in the slot to play. If you take them out it stops playing.
Maybe v3 you need to virtually rewind them before they work again? :-)
[+] [-] eadmund|1 year ago|reply
There’s no particularly good reason that it should be legally impermissible for someone to build and sell a system like this loaded with movies from before, say, 2010 (or 2000, or whatever), but instead what the prospective entrepreneur would be legally able to include would be … Steamboat Willie, and other films of that vintage (as an aside, while Disney’s had a pretty rough couple of years, I’m pretty sure that Steamboat Willie being out of copyright has nothing to do with any of that).
This sort of experience shouldn’t be limited to children of high-tech folks with access to 3D printers: it should be possible for any child — or adult!
[+] [-] nd6s8|1 year ago|reply
There is more content now then there are eyeballs or time available to consume any of it.
What happens to value and price of product when there is more of it produced than consumed?
[+] [-] Cthulhu_|1 year ago|reply
Streaming services rely on volume; for them, hardware just isn't worth it.
[+] [-] unknown|1 year ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] wlesieutre|1 year ago|reply
Looking for link
EDIT - not the one I remembered but here’s one implementation https://andreasjr.com/blog/interactive-wall-of-album-art/
[+] [-] joe8756438|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] masnick|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] stovestone|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] hermannj314|1 year ago|reply
When we buy books for our younger nieces and nephews we buy companion stuffed animals and then sew an NFC tag (the small quarter size ones) into them with the YouTube read-along url encoded on it.
[+] [-] baliex|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] JansjoFromIkea|1 year ago|reply