NSU graduates Vitaly Drozdov (Department of Information Technology) and Sergey Ermolaev (Physics Department) have developed a software application for parents to control their children鈥檚 mobile devices. The project Smelophone is aimed at cutting the time spent by the teens playing games online and motivating them to do their homework and some housework.
Looking at their own children and seeing them spending too much time with their computers and mobile phones, the developers decided to solve the problem by eliminating such an addiction. However, the idea didn鈥檛 come easily.
鈥楩irst we thought about a kind of a jammer so that parents could turn the Internet on the child鈥檚 mobile phone on and off,鈥� explains Vitaly. 鈥楢nalyzing different variants, we have ultimately come to a solution which enables family to control the applications on the child鈥檚 mobile phone from the parents鈥� phones and check what the children do with their mobile devices.鈥�
The application has been submitted to Google Play and is now being reviewed, tested, improved and tuned up.
鈥業t can be synchronized with the Electronic Diary, a Russian social educational network Dnevnik.ru. Parents will be able to see their children鈥檚 progress and motivate them from time to time. For example, if a child has got only As and Bs at school, he or she can be awarded with a prize or have their tablet unblocked for online games for a period of, say, two hours. If a child got an F, the mom can turn the Internet off for two days leaving the only option to answer calls,鈥� says Vitaly Drozdov.
The idea of the application was born as a result of observations that modern children cannot spend even a minute without the Internet or their gadgets. The programmers decided to get some benefits from such an addiction. Parents will be able to control the time their children surf the Internet or play games. Keeping up with the times, parents and their children will communicate through a so-called interactive medium by sending and receiving some household chores as quests for the children, who will be evaluated and awarded according to the results.
鈥楶arents can assign some chores for children to do, such as to vacuum clean, to wash up, to brush the teeth. If you have children, you鈥檒l understand what I mean. Kids often forget to do it. If they鈥檝e performed the task, they get a kind of currency, a smile, which creates positive motivation. The children can either save them, or spend them to unblock some games, or exchange for real gifts. The award depends on the parents and their methods of upbringing as they can assign an award according to the value of the task,鈥� says the programmer.
Before launching a trial version, Vitaly Drozdov and Sergey Ermolaev surveyed children, parents and teachers to find out how to make the application useful, effective and interesting.
鈥業 briefly explained my son the idea of the application, and he was obviously delighted. Various mobile bonuses and interactive prizes have always been attractive for children. When we asked parents and teachers, they also said such an application would help them a lot. For instance, my mum is a teacher at a primary school, and she says students always use their mobile phones and tablets during lessons without being allowed to do so. The teacher cannot do much about it. If the parents blocked their children鈥檚 devices, at least during the lessons, it would be very helpful. The children wouldn鈥檛 be able to chat or play but would have to pay attention to their studying.鈥�
The programmers promoted their idea during the Akadempark Summer School. A complete Android version is to appear this October. It will take one more year to port it to Windows and iOS.
