LAS VEGAS — Thomas Serval’s dentist called him a bad father when his then 7-year-old refused to brush her teeth. So he and his dentist made teeth-brushing fun — almost too much fun.
Serval’s company Kolibree made a toothbrush into a video game controller kids can use to make rabbits race and pirates plunder in games on a smartphone.
He said his company studied as many as 50 kids in a dentist office to see how they used his toothbrush versus a regular one. The kids brushed for more than two minutes on average with his brush and game combo, and he tweaked the product based on what he learned.
The games themselves now last a little less than two minutes and appear to keep an avid brusher from playing more than three times a day.
There’s no price tag, yet, for the kid version of the toothbrush, which should be available by April. The adult version, which looks almost identical but has a shorter battery life, sells for $149.
Associated Press
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