Mini smartphone projector for interactive bedtime stories

Moonlite is a mini projection device designed to bring children’s stories to life with images projected onto the wall or ceiling.

According to the US National Centre for Education Statistics, children who are read to at home enjoy a substantial advantage over children who are not. Statistics like this put pressure on parents to make time for bedtime reading, and we’ve seen some interesting products that respond to this. picture book app encourages children to make up their own narrative, and this Netflix digital library incentivises children’s reading with rewards for finishing chapters. Now Moonlite have created the first mini projector device that attaches to a smartphone to project images onto the ceiling or wall.

The projector attaches to most smartphones, using the mobile phone’s flash source. Users insert an image or story reel and begin the projector reading. The text for the accompanying story is displayed on the screen of the mobile phone, within the accompanying app, helping parents and children to follow the words easily. The linking technology means the ‘pages’ turn as users turn the story reel. Available for children aged between 2 and 7, Moonlite has a number of interesting features that make the experience more immersive and magical, such as story images in HD and in-app sound effects. The device also encourages early literacy with in-app read-a-long features

Founder Natalie Rebot successfully funded the product, raising $345,700 on Kickstarter. Could this use of the smartphone flashlight be extended to serve other functions?