On the TechTO stage ×1
First seen on the TechTO stage in 2018. Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about Alex ↗
In their words
In this generation, computer literacy and learning how technology works is just as important as learning how to read and write.
One day we had this tiny project, we showed it off to maker festivals, and a lot of parents demanded — where can we get this?
I just looked at Onome and said, let's just make a business, let's make a startup — and here we are today.
Around the web ×1
Quick answers
Who is Alex Hong?
A co-founder of Robot Playtime, the Toronto company behind the Pixel robotics app. He introduced himself on the TechTO stage in March 2018 as one of its two co-founders, alongside Onome Igharoro. No current role is published here because none could be verified from a first-party source.
What was Pixel?
An app that turned a phone or tablet — something already in everyone's pocket, as Hong put it on stage — into a programmable robot. Pixel starts out with no intelligence or emotion, and the child gives it a face, a voice and reactions with drag-and-drop blocks. Because it runs on a smartphone, it could also connect to open hardware such as Lego, Arduino and Raspberry Pi to give the robot wheels, arms or sensors.
How did Robot Playtime start?
Hong told the TechTO audience that he and Igharoro were in the same University of Toronto master's program in robotics, built a small project together, and showed it at maker festivals, where parents kept asking where they could buy it. He told BetaKit in 2017 that the idea traced back to his own struggle building a robot for a school project; his University of Toronto M.A.Sc. research was on emotion recognition for human-robot interaction.
What did Robot Playtime win?
The Next 36 Mastercard Challenge, which BetaKit reported in September 2017. Hong told BetaKit he valued the programme because it invests in the founder rather than the company, so the backing survives even if a first startup fails.