Professor Einstein? This Toy Robot Uses a Familiar Face to Teach Kids Science

Science lovers will love this new educational toy. The best thing about it? It uses the face of science's most beloved icon: Albert Einstein. The small robot dubbed Professor Einstein is capable of language processing and artificial intelligence properties to offer a great range of learning activities.

According to a report from TechCrunch, Hanson Robotics developed this child-friendly robot with a face that can convey emotion like smiles and frowns, and hands and arms that can move and point. It's also WiFi-capable and compatible with iOS and Android devices.

While the Professor Einstein can work as a standalone toy, it is compatible with the Stein-o-Matic application. This app sends brand new interactive content daily to the users. When the mobile device with the Stein-o-Matic is beside the robotic toy, it will be able to provide users with interactive lessons, thought experiments and a range of mental exercises, a report from New Atlas revealed. Successful activities grant the users with IQ points.

Even outside the lessons, children can get so much content from the Professor Einstein. They can indulge in conversation with the robot, which can share information about the weather, personalities, food and math. It can also manage a calendar and to-do list.

Invented by Hanson Robotics CTO Andy Rifkin, the company designed Professor Einstein with original content as well as its own speech processing system. However, it used artificial intelligence systems like IBM Watson and Microsoft's Xiaobing chatbot for the toy's conversation capabilities. It's designed for children 13 years old and above.

Professor Einstein is already available on Kickstarter for $249. It's expected to be ready for shipping on April 2017.

Hanson Robotics is famous for developing "robots with empathy" as well as ones with skin-like material that they called "frubber". Their products are very similar to a human with movements and expressions.