Ekomini Interactive Piggy Bank Review
Written on Feb 7, 2010 by Brian and filed under Reviews
We’ve seen innovation in many places, some expected, some not. The new Ekomini interactive piggy bank isn’t one we were expecting to see. The principle is simple, engage kids with a piggy bank that connects to the computer and opens an online universe that teaches saving and basic personal economics.
After the software is installed and the bank plugged into the computer via USB, kids get a tour of the virtual world. The world includes home, bank, park and shopping areas. Each section focuses on something a little different. In the park for instance, kids can learn about sharing some of their money with causes they can identify with. The system even connects kids with the websites for these organizations and provides a direct link to the donation form.
The shopping area lets kids set a savings goal to buy something, a toy, game, computer or whatever else they’re interested in. At the bank kids learn about saving and see their deposits by date. The home area features an area where kids can customize their savings plan and allocation of spending, savings and donations. There are also little life lessons too, like help Mom and Dad by keeping your room clean.
The virtual world is pretty thin though. There are games and more content coming, but kids got bored with it almost immediately. The park for instance is neat in that kids learn about social causes a little bit, but most are Canadian, linking US kids right to the Canadian donation forms. This would be an easy fix and it’s odd Ekomini didn’t do better here. There’s also no way parents can customize the non profits outside those that are included in the system.
It’s a little sketchy elsewhere too. Kids can only set up a single spending goal. So you can’t have short and long-term goals at the same time. Kids can save for a Hot Wheels set, but not the same car set and a computer together. The bank tallies deposits, but doesn’t offer much else in terms of education or interaction. The ideas are all nice, but it’s pretty clear that the system isn’t where it can be or probably will be in the future.
The main feature though is the bank and its ability to count both US and Canadian currencies. When in the banking screen kids can feed the bank coins and they get tallied up in little piles. This is actually pretty fun and the bank does a pretty good job of recognizing the coins. It has a little spring sensor that detects the size of the coins as they go in. So it doesn’t matter how dirty a coin is, just that it has maintained its shape. The reader is pretty reliable, though a few times we noticed coins weren’t counted and it didn’t recognize the current US dollar coin standard at all. There’s also no accounting for paper money automatically, kids are instructed to roll up their bills and insert them in the hole on the front of the bank. Then they can be added manually to the bank total. We don’t expect an optical bill reader, so that solution is probably fine.
The design of the bank could use a little help. The bright orange and yellow isn’t subtle and the placement of the USB connection makes the system look a little odd when connected. Also, to access the funds in the bank, you need a flat head screwdriver. That added level of security is probably too much for most kids.
Bottom Line
The Ekomini bank has the right idea, and we like the general direction of the product. But at this point it feels very generation one, and therefore we won’t issue a rating. For $40 we expected more but will give the company time to work through their issues. The main thing is the content needs to be better and there needs to be more for kids to do online. Solving those issues and perhaps better hardware design in version two of the bank could earn our recommendation.
Buying information for the Ekomini can be found here.
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