Sifteo Cubes Enable Truly Hands-On Interactions to advertise Creative Play and Foster Development of Key Thinking Skills for Inquisitive Kids and Imaginative Adults
San Francisco, August 11th, 2011 – Sifteo Inc today announced the imminent general availability of its Sifteo cubes to U.S. and Canadian customers. Sifteo cubes are motion-aware 1.5-inch blocks with full-color screens that wirelessly connect to a non-public computer during play to create unique interactions when shaken, tilted, rotated and neighbored next to each other. With Sifteo cubes, the corporate is pioneering the concept that of Intelligent Play™, an evolution of entertainment and learning that mixes familiar physical interactions, innovative technology and fascinating titles, opening the door to new fun and social play experiences.
Sifteo has also announced the supply of the Sifteo Creativity Kit™, that is included with the acquisition of each Sifteo Pack. The Sifteo Creativity Kit enables Sifteo users to customise an endless array of gameplay experiences for themselves and others using their Sifteo cubes. The Sifteo Creativity Kit lets users easily create quite a number mini-games tailored to their unique interests, from learning foreign languages and ordering chemical elements by atomic weight, to word play games and number puzzles.
“Sifteo cubes are the primary platform to deliver truly hands-on play, combining the newest in embedded computing and sensing technology with a timeless play style,” said co-founder and CEO Jeevan Kalanithi. “We were inspired by great classic games reminiscent of Sudoku, Tetris and dominoes once we got down to create a higher generation of enriching, innovative and fun games for every person.”
The highly anticipated Sifteo cubes were first previewed in prototype form on the TED Conference in February 2009 (https://sifteo.com/ted_2009) by David Merrill, Sifteo co-founder and President. After debuting the product on the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the corporate launched an Early Access program last January, leading to several design awards and significant praise from enthusiasts and influencers alike. The corporate has since improved the gameplay experience, developed the Sifteo Creativity Kit, and forged partnerships with leading game and interface designers comparable to Scott Kim, Tyler Hinman and Stimulant, a San Francisco-based interaction design consultancy.
Parents and educators have also hailed Sifteo as a compelling education platform that promotes learning while having fun. Sifteo cubes and games encourage the advance of core thinking skills – for instance:
· Spatial Reasoning: Understand relationships between objects with regards to distance and orientation
· Strategy and Planning: Hone higher-level thinking and problem solving skills
· Patterns and Perception: Sort and classify items to know trends and develop hypotheses
· Cooperation and Collaboration: Build and refine social skills to unravel issues of other people
“Sifteo has designed an academic play platform that relates extraordinarily well to children of every age,” said Dr. Victoria Matthews, founder and previous director of the Montessori School of Ojai, California. “There’s no limit to how parents and educators can use Sifteo cubes to mix fun and learning in a completely unique way that engages today’s digital kid.”
A software development kit (SDK) would be available at launch, giving developers the liberty to create interactive games and applications for his or her Sifteo cubes. Game programmers, interface designers and hobbyist developers can utilize the Sifteo SDK to assume and build new interactions that bridge physical objects and digital content, and so they can soon share their creations online in the course of the Sifteo store.
Pricing and Availability
The Sifteo Pack includes three Sifteo cubes, a Sifteo charging dock and a USB radio link which wirelessly connects the cubes to any Windows or Mac computer, enabling users to download and play the most recent Sifteo games. The Sifteo Pack, priced at $149, and extra Sifteo cubes, priced at $45 each, are available in for U.S. and Canadian customers to pre-order at Sifteo’s website (www.sifteo.com) and should begin shipping to customers in September 2011. The Sifteo store includes a selection of fun, social and fascinating titles across a spectrum of arcade, strategy, language and puzzle games, priced at $5 or less.
How you can Play with Sifteo Cubes
To play with Sifteo cubes, users first install Siftrunner (Sifteo’s desktop application) on a web-based-connected computer, then buy and download games and apps from Sifteo’s store. A USB wireless link connects Siftrunner with Sifteo cubes during play. For best performance, users should play within a couple of feet of the USB wireless link. In optimal conditions, the variety may extend as much as 20 feet.
About Sifteo
Sifteo Inc is building the world’s first platform for Intelligent Play. Sifteo has designed Sifteo cubes, a next-generation play system along with physical blocks with full color graphics that sense one another and their motion. Sifteo is devoted to producing applications and games for adults and kids, encouraging development of key thinking skills through fun, engaging and social games. Sifteo is found in San Francisco, CA. For additional information, visit Sifteo at https://www.sifteo.com/.
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