How I Built an NFC Movie Library for my Kids
Thank you for the nice message! I don't have any plans to sell these though. Have enough on my hands with 2 kids ;)
You can buy pre-made readers from Adenno: https://adonno.com/tagreader/ He uses the smaller NFC reader that I want to use in the future.
I love it! There are so many users who could benefit from this: children, elderly, people with disabilities, prison/hospital/hotel settings.
That's such a cool idea! I don't have kids but if I someday do I'll probably steel your idea. I feel like the digital era makes it "to much" for kids, and having a limited, physical library was a better experience overall.
For audio books this has already be done: https://us.tonies.com/
It is a walled garden ecosystem, though.
Walled gardens suck, so I built this for audiobooks and kid-story podcasts for my kids. No tonies for us, and my kids have way more control over what they listen to. Same base setup with the reader, just different media sources and player targets.
I did this at my house too. I've also got a card for turning off the the TV and the lights when the kids are done in that room.
Hadn't considered using NFC tags to have my kids control other things in the house. Interesting idea!
Hypothetically, how much would you pay for an NFT of someone else's kids? I might get crypto rich after all!
That's really cool - plus it gives them a chance to learn how NFC spoofing works when they get older.
That's a great idea. I hope they also use the opportunity to educate the kids on what NFCs are and, at least in simple terms, how the setup all works.
I'm not saying show them the code. But there are simple ways you can explain to kids what a NFC chip is and how that NFC chip lets them play the movies they want.
Of course. But when a kid has important Good Dinosaur things to do, they’re not going to care
I loved learning about how computers worked when I was a little kid. My (much) older brother taught me all about how the Apple II worked when I was 6, and within a few months, I knew enough to use it myself. I had important games to play, but I still wanted to know how it all worked.
What evidence do you have that most children aren't interested in learning how things work? Because there are a lot of children's books about how things work.
It depends. Children are naturally curious. I think it comes down to how you deal with that as a parent. Our son is interested in pretty much everything we do. As much as possible, we take the time to involve him. Tell him what's happening, why we're doing things a certain way, etc...
I assembled the NFC reader together with him, and he did question what it was for. Obviously he doesn't understand the technical details behind it, but he understand that the box recognizes the cards he put on top of it. That's enough for now. Maybe in the future I can dive a little bit deeper into it.
Woops, yes! Link to the blog post with how-to: https://simplyexplained.com/blog/how-i-built-an-nfc-movie-library-for-my-kids/ Updated now.
Does it resume from the last time they watched? Does it work with TV shows too and track which episode they are on?
The Plex deep links will automatically resume. TV shows are tricky. For that, I use the Plex integration of Home Assistant to play a random episode. It's supposed to be super powerful, but I haven't got it to work reliably yet (which is why I didn't focus on TV Shows in the blog post).
service: media_player.play_media
data:
media_content_type: EPISODE
media_content_id: |-
{
"library_name" : "TV shows",
"show_name": "SHOW NAME HERE",
"shuffle": 1,
"maxresults": 1
}
enqueue: replace
target:
entity_id: media_player.plex_plex_for_apple_tv_apple_tv
Thank you, this gives me enough to start and play with.
My kiddo doesn't really care too much about movies but loves TV shows. Maybe I solve it with a script if I can't get the native plex link to work
This is going to be a good winter project for me
And I'm wondering if these could be adjusted to have the card be "inserted" and turn off when the card is removed?
I have some nfc tags sitting around but they are much thicker. Maybe I can 3d print something those tags can click into and make like a mini vhs player for them
For audiobook that has been done: https://us.tonies.com/ The moment you lift the figure it stops playing and will resume, when you put it back. Nice concept for little kids and it went really well here in Germany. You will find a Toni box in most middle/upper class households. They are magnetic.
Haha I still have my stack of nfc cards nearby from when I was inspired by that music player project as well.
Maybe you’ll inspire me to actually try it now.
Go for it! If you have some experience with Home Assistant and ESPHome, then this is a simple project. I might do in the future for music as well. I love the physical aspect of browsing the cards and deciding what to watch/listen.
Oops, posted too quickly. Here it is: https://simplyexplained.com/blog/how-i-built-an-nfc-movie-library-for-my-kids/
Great post, thanks for sharing! I'm hoping to dive into the world of hardware projects and 3D printing and this article is quite inspiring :)
I guess this means I need to set up home assistant instead of lazily relying on Google... This is totally beyond my expertise and I've got a 42U server rack in my basement.
A 2 year old kid shouldn't watch 30 minutes of TV a day! Best practice is like 10 kid show when they're about 4 years...
I agree that kids shouldn't spend a lot of time behind screens. But I disagree with the fact that 30 mins is too much.
Our oldest son watches TV while drinking milk. That's either first thing in the morning (while still being a bit sleepy and while we get his younger brother ready) or it's just before bed (when physically exhausted from playing all day).
I see some benefits to watching movies instead of TV shows. Watching a movie for 30min at a time, trains his ability to focus for longer periods of time. A skill that I highly value in this era of TikTok and 30 second attention spans. He also learns to follow a story, to have empathy with the characters, to see situations in which he hasn't found himself in yet, and so forth...
And yes, it's also convenient for us. During those 30min we can get his brother ready and dressed, make lunch, get ready ourselves, etc.
Ultimately, it's up to each parent to decide for themselves. What is an acceptable amount of screen time, and how do you spend times away from screens. For us, that's a little bit of TV in the mornings and evenings, and no screens in between.
The older brother could help make lunch. Or dress yourself.If your Benchmark is the short attention span through tiktok etc, I find it very worrying. But OK, that's just my opinion. I just think it's a shame for the children for whom it will be normal to watch TV in the morning and evening instead of engaging with them.