Campfire uses Watson to bring physical books to life

These days, you won’t receive many arguments if debating the growing screen addiction among our youth. Screens are competing with, and in some cases, replacing our favorite past times, such as reading physical books. Everywhere you turn for innovation, including AR and VR, more time is dedicated being glued to a screen.

In fact, the number of hours in front of a screen averages from 6-11 hours per day on average, depending on the source. Not to mention, many of those hours are spent multitasking across multiple screens at the same time. Child psychologists warn parents to limit kids to no more than two hours a day in front of a screen, due to the correlation between too much screen time and difficulty falling asleep, increased risk of attention problems, anxiety, depression, and increased chances of obesity. While the publishing industry has taken a significant hit over the years with e-readers, children’s books have grown 13-20% year over year, as parents aim to bond with their young ones and keep them growing emotionally and intellectually through stories.

This is where Campfire, a Seattle-based startup, saw an opportunity to use Watson’s Speech-to-Text service, and set out to bring an innovative spin to children’s books. They did this through developing a new artistic medium and industry first, which creates immersive, screen-free experiences that are triggered by the voice. Campfire provides a library of custom-created experiences that emit colorful showers of light, cinematic music scores and accompanying sound effects. These elements work together to bring a mood and atmosphere that pair with our favorite stories, right into a user’s physical space as a user reads aloud. For publishers, it’s an opportunity to introduce an entirely new product into a major portion of their book catalogue.

Campfire’s i/o platform connects physical books to IoT devices, such as smart bulbs, bluetooth speakers, fans, Arduino controllers, and more on the way. They have also created a very simple and intuitive tool for anyone to score experiences and publish them to their marketplace for others to download and enjoy, a feature which will be released publicly in the coming months.

“Working with Watson has made this experience seamless, as it provides the best speech-to-text capabilities we’ve found in the market. Our use case is unique in how it’s being used, so as we’ve had questions and had to iron out wrinkles, Watson’s support has been very responsive and willing to dig in to help us achieve a quality user experience. Over the number of months we’ve been working with Watson, we’ve noticed considerable improvement in how well the app picks up difficult language, which is key. We see voice as the next frontier for user applications, and we’re excited to be helping pioneer it, alongside IBM Watson,” shared Kyle Kesterson.

While users can experience a taste of Campfire with just the app, pairing with devices, including Smart Bulbs, is what makes the experience feel immersive, and by many accounts, magical. To do this, Campfire just announced a partnership with LIFX, makers of the world’s brightest color Wi-Fi enabled smart light bulbs, and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, who is leading the way to treat and defeat childhood cancer and other life threatening diseases. That means for each LIFX bulb you bring into your home to experience Campfire, 10% will be donated to St. Jude, with a minimum of $50,000 to support their lifesaving mission. “We’re super excited to launch our partnerships with LIFX and St Jude’s, because our philosophies and rigorous devotion to creating positive life experiences aligns perfectly,” says Campfire CEO, Kyle Kesterson. “We can’t think of a better way to literally light up a child’s life, than filling their world and imaginations with colorful stories.” Campfire has also partnered with the Innovation Hangar at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco to host a series of immersive reading experiences for families. “My daughter and I just felt magic. Campfire is the future of storytelling for story lovers and story tellers,” said Campfire user, parent, and Hackster CEO, Adam Benzion.

Background: Campfire is the brainchild of Seattle creatives, Kyle Kesterson, a serial entrepreneur and former Funko toy developer, and David Wykes, a father, and industrial and graphic designer. David is parent to his 7-year old daughter, Robyn, and one of the most cherished routines they have together is sitting around a book for story time. However, story time often brings pressures of having to be a great storyteller at the end of a long day, along with story fatigue after reading the same books over and over.

“We believe that with just the right combination of art and science, we can refresh the story experience, and create magical moments between parents and children around stories for years to come,” shared Campfire Co-Founder, David Wykes. The original idea was pitched at Startup Weekend EDU last November, and they have since built a team of engineers, creatives, a composer, and a Campfire experience designer. “It’s always an incredible feeling as a creative, identifying a need, seeing around the corner for the opportunity, then making the intangible idea tangible, bringing it into the world for people to light up around and enjoy. This early release checks off one of the first boxes to making it a great business. Next we’re focused on adding partnerships, much more experiential content, and raising some seed capital to help the fire grow, ” explained Kyle Kesterson.