Playbrush

Playbrush is an oral care invention for children that is designed to encourage kids to brush their teeth regularly and properly via Gamification.

There are two Playbrush devices – both developed by an Austro-British company with the same name. One is a dongle for manual toothbrushes that fits onto the end of normal manual toothbrushes, the newer device is a sonic integrated toothbrush. Both innovations connect via Bluetooth Low Energy to a smartphone or tablet. The movement of the brush is picked up by motion sensors in the dongle, which then feeds it to the phone to control different games, that encourage brushers to spend a full two minutes cleaning their teeth everywhere in the mouth. The sonic toothbrush also provides feedback on pressure.

History

The technology was developed in 2014 and 2015 by Austrian entrepreneur Paul Varga, while observing the behavior of his three-year-old godson, whose parents would amuse him during bedtime rituals like toothbrushing by playing YouTube clips on their iPad. Together with childhood friend Matthäus Ittner and former fellow student Tolulope Ogunsina, with the help of University College London, Varga kicked off the development of Playbrush in summer 2014. The development was supported by various dentists, among others Dr. Paul Ashley, Head of Pediatric dentistry at the Eastman Dental Institute and Dr. Aubrey Sheiham from University College London's Dental Public Health department.

After a successful Kickstarter campaign in Spring 2015 the version one of the Playbrush dongle launched in November 2015, with mobile apps for Android and iOS, in Austria, Germany and the United Kingdom. In 2018 the electric toothbrush Playbrush Smart Sonic was released.

The company raised several rounds of venture capital.

Technology

Playbrush's technology consists of hardware and software.

The hardware is an Internet of Things technology integrated in either a dongle for manual toothbrushes or into an electric toothbrush. The electronics include motion sensors to detect where users are brushing and to provide feedback on brushing behavior. The motion is captured and transmitted in real-time to the users' smartphone or tablet, where the software kicks in. Playbrush's algorithm translates the brushing data into various interactive games that children control via their brushing movements. In summer 2018 Playbrush had 11 games available plus one brushing coach, which are downloadable via the Android Play Store and the Apple App Store. There is also a detailed statistics section to provide historic feedback for parents and dentists.

Awards

The technology and company has received various awards:

  • UCL Bright Ideas Award 2014[1]
  • TNW Europe Top 3 Startup - 2015
  • Best Technological Innovative Contribution Award (Gamification World Awards 2015)[2]
  • Health Media Award 2016[3]
  • Pitch@Palace Finalist 2016[4]
  • Forbes Austria Start-up Academy 2016[5]
  • Bits & Pretzels Pro 7 Special Award (250.000 TV Budget Price) 2017

Dragons' Den

In 2018, the founders of Playbrush appeared on season 15 of the BBC series Dragons' Den requesting £100,000 for a 1% stake in their company. They received 4 offers of investment at a higher percentage. They rejected all four offers.

References
  1. "UCL Bright Ideas Award 2014: Playbrush". UCL MediaCentral. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  2. "Gamification World Awards 2015 Winners". Serious Games Industry. 2015-12-02. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  3. "Preisträger - Health Media Award". Health Media Award (in German). Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  4. "Playbrush Pitch to the audience, Pitch@Palace 5.0. - The Duke of York". thedukeofyork.org. Retrieved 2018-09-10.
  5. "Playbrush entscheidet Forbes Start-up Late Night für sich". www.leadersnet.at (in German). Retrieved 2018-09-10.
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