While software development has been around for a while now, it usually felt like a pretty specialized field as opposed to a topic that educational institutions felt should be taught to everyone. However times have changed and with technology becoming more integrated in our lives these days, perhaps teaching children programming as a skillset that can be used to earn money in the future does make sense. In fact we’ve seen several initiatives that aim to teach children how to program, and Play-i, a startup between former Google and Apple employees, is another educational tool that can be added to that ever-growing list.
Play-i is essentially a robot that will teach children how to program, and interestingly enough unlike some toys where children will eventually outgrow, the robot will scale its difficulty as the child gets older, or as they complete the different levels, so to speak. According to the company’s founder and CEO, Vikas Gupta, “The focus is on getting very young children to learn programming, and do it in a way that’s a lot of fun, and doesn’t feel challenging or intimidating to the point where they don’t meet their goals.” As to why they chose to use robots instead of an app or some other method, Gupta said, “All the research we’ve read shows that tangible products make those concepts of programming accessible to children in a very concrete way.”
It sounds like a great idea and Play-i has currently exceeded its funding goals by over 70%, so for more information on the device, hit up its website for the details. Play-i is expected to begin shipping in the summer of 2014.
The Play-i Robots Aims To Teach Children How To Program original content from Ubergizmo. 
     |
Robots certainly come in handy when it comes to helping us humans out in difficult situations, such as doing repetitive work without getting tired at all, ferrying heavy items from one point to another without breaking a sweat, and best of all, not complaining about long working hours as well as organizing a strike as a union. They are good workers, and it remains to be seen whether an apocalyptic vision will pan out when robots become self-aware and want to eliminate humans. NASA’s 
I still remember how Professor X had the help of Shi’ar technology to allow him to walk when he brought his X-Men to confront Magneto, but it did take plenty of effort from him to use his vast mental powers to run the thing. Such a fictional setting has become reality this time around, thanks to the introduction of the Indego exoskeleton. The person wearing it as you can see above to walk around happens to be Michael Gore, who fell 12 feet to the ground at his work site near Atlanta, breaking his back in the process. Gore himself was consigned to remain in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, or at least he was informed as such. Gore, however, has had a reversal in fortune not through a miraculous healing, but because of the powered Indego 
